Alexander C. Burr Papers

Alexander C. Burr, son of North Dakota Supreme Court Justice Alexander G. Burr, was born March 21, 1901, in Bottineau, North Dakota. Burr graduated from Rugby High School and received a B.A. from Jamestown College in North Dakota, a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, and an engineering certificate from the University of Munich, Germany. He was dean of faculty at Jamestown College from 1938 to 1942. He then did research for the North Dakota State Industrial Commission's war effort and became director of research for the North Dakota Research Foundation in 1943. Burr's engineering expertise was utilized when he took a leave of absence from the Research Foundation to become supervising engineer for two major energy research projects: the construction of the lignite gasification plant in Grand Forks in 1947 and the U.S. Bureau of Mines Lignite Research Laboratory in 1949. In 1949, he was also Chief of the U.S. Bureau of Mines Region 5 Fuels Technology Division. He resigned this post in 1953 to resume the directorship of the North Dakota Research Foundation in Bismarck. He continued in this capacity until the Research Foundation was superceded by the State Economic Development Commission in 1957 and technical research was no longer its emphasis. Burr was active in professional engineering societies. He organized and was the first president of the North Dakota Society of Professional Engineers. He was also chair of the North Dakota State Board for the Registration of Professional Engineers and active in the National Society of Professional Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Chemical Society. Alexander C. Burr died August 30, 1977, in Bismarck, North Dakota.

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