CHARLES DWIGHT (CAP) CURTISS

1955 - 1957
Commissioner/Bureau of Public Roads

Engineer - Teacher - U.S. Army Officer - Public Servant

Charles Dwight Curtiss served as a captain with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War I in France, earning his lifelong nickname of "Cap."

Following the war, Cap Curtiss joined the Bureau of Public Roads and began a 38-year public service career.

Along with others in the Bureau who were destined to give this Nation a new concept in transportation at both the State and national levels, Cap Curtiss helped formulate the policies and procedures of the amendments and expansions of the Federal-aid Highway Act of 1916.

When he became Commissioner in 1955, plans for an enlarged and greatly expanded highway program reached out to every corner of the Nation.

With the signing of the Federal-aid Highway Act of 1956 by President Eisenhower, it became Cap Curtiss' responsibility to put into immediate operation the authorization of the largest public works programs ever undertaken on a State-Federal cooperative basis.