Homer L. Ferguson
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Homer L. Ferguson was President of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company from Jul. 22, 1915 - Jul. 31, 1946. Mr. Ferguson was born in Waynesville, North Carolina on March 6, 1873. At the age of fifteen he entered the United States Naval Academy and graduated at the head of his class in 1892. His education was continued at the Glasgow University, 1892-1895.
While in the Navy he served as Assistant Naval Constructor. He was at the Columbian Iron Works, Baltimore, Maryland, 1895-1896; at the Navy Yard, Portland, Oregon, 1896-1899; the Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, 1899-1900,; at the Bath, Maine, Iron Works as Superintending Naval Constructor, 1900-1902; the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, 1902-1904; and with the Bureau of Construction and Repair. Washington, D.C., 1904-1905.
In 1905 Mr. Ferguson resigned from the Navy and became Assistant Superintendent of Construction for Newport News Shipbuilding. During the next ten years, as Superintendent and later as General Manager, he not only built up the physical property of the plant and improved methods of operation, but strengthened the personnel chiefly by the development of the young men in the organization. It was under Ferguson that the Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School was founded.
He was President of the United States Chamber of Commerce, 1919-1920.
In January 1918, Ferguson appeared before a Senate subcommittee investigating shipyard conditions. Ferguson was very persuasive regarding the impact of the war effort on the lack of housing for shipyard workers. With preliminary designs in hand and with the shipyard's offer to purchase land for the project, Ferguson was able to secure a 1.2 million dollar appropriation to begin construction immediately. The Hilton Village project was the first of its kind and the prototype of approximately 100 similar wartime government housing projects.
The Ferguson Center for the Performing Arts is a theater and concert hall named for Homer Ferguson on the campus of Christopher Newport University in Newport News. The site of the Ferguson Center is the former Ferguson High School.
At the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, the Ferguson Society, named for Homer L. Ferguson, is a patron society for those who donate $1,000 - $2,499. Ferguson, along with the Huntington family, laid the foundation for the Museum.
