Thomas D. Mylrea
Thomas Douglas Mylrea was born in Liverpool, England on January 17, 1886 to Philip and Elizabeth Mylrea. He attended R.T. Crane High School in Chicago, before going to the University of Illinois and graduated in 1909 with a bachelor’s degree of Civil Engineering. At the University he was a part of the Civil Engineering club and participated in the YMCA.
From July-December of 1909, after graduation, he worked for the Illinois State Highway Commission. After leaving that job, he worked for the American Bridge Company of New York. Mylrea spent two years there as the timekeeper and one year as a draftsman before finding another job as the chief draftsman with the Dominion Bridge Company. In 1913, he married Cornelia Harkness. Some time thereafter, he became an assistant professor at his Alma Mater, the University of Illinois, where he was one of the original members and one of the first chapter honor members of the alpha chapter of Chi Epsilon. In 1927, while working as an assistant professor, a book he wrote titled “Reinforced Concrete In Flexure” was published. An original copy of the book is available at the Grainger Engineering Library.
Following his assistant professorship at the University of Illinois, Mylrea went on to teach and research at the University of Delaware. At the University of Delaware he helped the US prepare for World War 2 by working with the Army in research on the use of rockets. He was eventually named the head of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Delaware, where he worked until his death on January 19, 1949.