William Paul Gerhard

William Paul Gerhard (30 July 1854, in Hamburg, Germany - 1927) was a United States sanitary engineer. He was educated in Alexandria, Egypt, and later on in a gymnasium in Kiel, Germany. He graduated as a civil engineer from the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Baden, in 1875, and served as volunteer in Prussian Railroad Regiment, 1875-76, Berlin. He came to the United States in September 1877. He worked under Colonel Flad and under Captain James B. Eads in Saint Louis, 1877-80. He assisted the latter in the preparation of the plates for the History of the St. Louis Bridge. He became chief assistant engineer to Col. George E. Waring, Jr. at Newport, Rhode Island, 1881-83. Gerhard then moved to New York City, where for two years he was chief engineer of the Durham House-Drainage Company, and afterward he had a practise as a civil engineer, devoting himself particularly to the sanitation of buildings and towns. Gerhard was editor of Building, an architectural journal, 1885-86, and served as consulting sanitary engineer on staff of New York State architects. He was United States delegate to First International Conference on Public Baths at The Hague, 1910. He was member of technical societies in the United States and Germany, and received an honorary degree of doctor of civil engineering from Technical University of Darmstadt in 1911.