Homer L. Ferguson

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Homer L. Ferguson

Homer L. Ferguson, (March 6, 1873 - 1953), was an author and businessman. He was President of Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia from July 22, 1915 through July 31, 1946.

[edit] Biography

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 continued at the Glasgow University from 1892 through 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 Iron Works, in Bath, Maine 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 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 Apprentice School was founded to develop and train shipbuilders.

He was President of the United States Chamber of Commerce, 1919-1920.

In January 1918, Ferguson appeared before a United States 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 is recognized today as a pioneering urban planning project. Hilton Village served as the prototype of approximately 100 similar wartime government housing projects.

Ferguson died in 1953. In 1958, his widow joined Martha Woodroof Hiden, also widow of a president to Newport News Shipbuilding, in cutting the ceremonial ribbon to note the recombining of the former Warwick County, Virginia (which became an independent city in 1952) with Newport News, Virginia|Newport News, which had separated from the county to become a separate independent city in 1896, forming the consolidated "new" City of Newport News in 1958.

[edit] Legacy

The I.M. Pei-designed Ferguson Center for the Performing Arts is a theater and concert hall named for 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 Mariners' Museum in Newport News, the Ferguson Society, named for 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.

"Ferguson Avenue" in the National Register of Historic Places neighborhood of Hilton Village is named after Ferguson.