| George Arnold Escher | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 10, 1843 Leeuwarden, Netherlands |
| Died | June 14, 1939 (aged 96) Arnhem, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Occupation | civil engineer |
George Arnold Escher (10 May 1843 – 14 June 1939) was a Dutch civil engineer and a foreign advisor to the Japanese government during the Meiji period.[1]
He was the father of the graphic artist M. C. Escher and the geologist Berend George Escher.
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Escher was hired by the Japanese government as a foreign advisor from September 1873 to July 1878, along with fellow Dutch civil engineers Johannis de Rijke and Cornelis Johannes van Doorn.[1] During his stay in Japan, he designed and supervised the restoration of the Yodo river (Osaka), and built a harbour in Mikuni in Fukui prefecture.
After returning to the Netherlands, he worked in Maastricht. During this time, he recorded in his diary his difficulty as a Protestant in finding a suitable marriage partner in Roman Catholic Maastricht who would also be able to satisfy his equation v = 1/2m + 10, where v was the age of the woman, and to the age of the husband. [2] In 1882, Escher married Charlotte Marie Hartitzsch, with whom he had two sons. He became a widower in 1885, and in 1892 married Sara Gleichman, with whom he had three more sons. Escher worked as a hydraulic engineer in Leeuwarden. In 1903 the family moved to Arnhem.