Spectators take up position on November 5th 1913 to greet the first water flowing through the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
roderick mackay, born 1880
engineer of the los angeles aqueduct
Roderick Mackay was one of seven children of a Scottish station master from Burntisland, Fife. Working at the Burntisland Gasworks, he rose rapidly to become manager of the works. He then emigrated with two of his brothers to the USA. He developed a career as a civil engineer, and played a leading role as Chief Construction Engineer in the building of the great Los Angeles Aqueduct. He used his savings to buy land in Santa Barbara, which became very valuable. His fortune was inherited by his daughter Christine, who bequeathed the bulk of it to the Shriners - a philanthropic fraternity of which her father had been a keen member.
Click below to view his life story:
Source: The sources for this life story, which are acknowledged with thanks, include the Water and Power Associates website at www.waterandpower.org the Burntisland Heritage Trust website at www.burntisland.net, and the publication Memories from the Cambridge firm of D.Mackay, byDonald Mackay. It was compiled by Alex Reid in 2019.