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Overview

Granville Moorman Read (1894-1962) worked for DuPont's Engineering Department in many capacities before becoming Chief Engineer after World War II. Read studied engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, then joined DuPont in 1915 when the company's Engineering Department was just over a decade old. By 1930 he had become Assistant Director of the Industrial Engineering Division, a position he held for 10 years until transferring to the Construction Division. After the United States entered World War II in 1941, Read managed DuPont's War Construction Program. He became DuPont's Assistant Chief Engineer in 1943 when his predecessor joined the Navy. In that capacity Read lead DuPont's massive effort to construct and operate the Hanford Engineer Works in Washington. Hanford produced plutonium for the Manhattan Project, whose research culminated in a successful nuclear detonation at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 1945.

As DuPont's Chief Engineer after the war, Read helped negotiate an agreement with U.S. government officials by which DuPont would construct and operate the Savannah River nuclear energy plant in Aiken, South Carolina. Like Hanford, the Savannah River Plant was one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken. Read celebrated the 50th anniversary of DuPont's Engineering Department in 1953 by moving his team into the new Louviers office building outside Wilmington, Delaware. At Louviers his 2,000-member staff of designers, construction experts and engineers helped DuPont build new facilities and renovate old plants for new processes. Granville Read won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Medal in 1955 and was the Delaware Engineering Society's first Engineer of the Year in 1957.

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