Wesley Winans Horner Papers, 1908-1944 | WUA University Archives

Wesley Winans Horner was an expert in sewer design. Born in September 22, 1883 in Columbia, Missouri, Horner studied at Washington University in St. Louis and graduated with a BSE degree in 1905 and a Civil Engineering degree in 1909. He joined the City of St. Louis as an assistant engineer, becoming chief engineer in 1919, where he stayed until 1932. He then became a consultant and senior partner in Horner & Shifrin until he retired. From 1934-1942, he was also lecturer and later professor of sanitary and hydraulic engineering at Washington University, and water consultant and member of the national water commission within the National Resources Planning Board.

Horner was a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Public Works Association, serving as president in 1923. He was also active in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), serving as director in 1933 and President in 1946. He received the 1937 Rudolph Hering Medal and the 1955 Gold Achievement Award of the Engineers Club of St. Louis.

During his civil engineer work with the city of St. Louis, Horner was involved in the design and supervision of an extensive program of street widenings, traffic aids, and sewer work. He played a major role in planning a comprehensive sewer system and in designing the East Side Levee and Sanitary District. He was also involved in the extensive design of the River Des Peres Drainage Project, constructed in nine phases between 1924 and 1933. His specialties include sanitary and municipal engineering, and water supply. Earlier in his career he developed the rational method for sewer design. He also worked in culvert hydraulics, an important hydraulic structure in flood defense that often fails under high discharges. In 1953, former president Hoover named him to a 26-man task force to study federal activities in the field of water resources and power development. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of engineering by Washington University in St. Louis in 1952.

He died on September 22, 1958 in St. Louis, Missouri.

~Hydraulicians in the USA 1800-2000 by Willi H. Hager