George Brooke Roberts

ROBERTS, George Brooke, civil engineer, b. in Montgomery county, Pa.. 15 Jan., 1833. He was graduated at Rensselaer polytechnic institute in 1849, and was an assistant there in mathematics and geodesy in 1850-'1. He entered the Pennsylvania railroad service as rodman in 1851, in 1852 became assistant engineer of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, and for the next ten years was steadily engaged in the location and construction of various roads, returning to the Pennsylvania railroad in 1862, as assistant to the president. He was made fourth vice-president in 1869, then second vice-president, in 1874 first vice-president, and upon the death of Col. Thomas A. Scott, in May, 1880, he became president of the company.

Source: Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 6. James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1888, p. 698.

Submitted by Nancy.