California Surveyors Forums

Besides yourself of course, i'm compiling a list of famous people who were land surveyors... For example,
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Lewis & Clark
Mason & Dixon
Any other names come in mind?

major league baseball player and star of "Branded", a TV series in the 60's. He was a surveyor in the show.

Henry David Cook
James Cook
Daniel Boone

Correction

Henry Thoreau not Cook

Dick (Flop) Fosbury

Collonial Leander Ransom, for the establishment of the Mount Diablo Meridian.

Everest was another surveyor who established the elevation of Mt. Everest by trigonometric methods in In 1856. The Great Trigonometric Survey of India established the first published height of Everest, then known as Peak XV, at 29002 ft

My favorite "Wyatt Earp", yes he was a surveyor and the Mount Diablo Surveyors Historical Society has copies of his signature as the Chainman.
"As a young man Earp was a stagecoach driver, railroad construction worker, surveyor, buffalo hunter, and policeman.

Dan Aykroyd, Saturday Night Live.

From 'net:

One of the most vibrant comic personalities of the 1970s and '80s, as well as a noted actor and screenwriter, Dan Aykroyd got his professional start in his native Canada. Before working as a standup comedian in various Canadian nightclubs, Aykroyd studied at a Catholic seminary from which he was later expelled. He then worked as a train brakeman, a surveyor, and studied Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, where he began writing and performing comedy sketches. His success as a comic in school led him to work with the Toronto branch of the famed Second City improvisational troupe.

Peter Cushing - Need to verify.
Born: May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, United KingdomDied: August 11, 1994.Job Titles: Actor, Surveyor s clerkEducation
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, England
Milestones
1935 Stage acting debut, with the Worthington Repertory Company in England
1939 Hollywood debut, in James Whale s version of The Man in the Iron Mask
1941 Last feature film for seven years, They Dare Not Love ; begun by Whale but completed by director Charles Vidor
1948 One-shot return to acting in films: made British film debut as Osric in Laurence Olivier s adaptation of Hamlet ; film also marked first feature in which he and Christopher Lee both acted, though Cushing s Osric had no interaction with Lee s palace guard
1952 Returned to feature film acting with a supporting role in John Huston s Moulin Rouge ; acted regularly in features thereafter
1957 First received top billing in the Hammer Studios film, The Curse of Frankenstein ; film also marked first horror outing, the first of five films in which Cushing would play Dr. Frankenstein and his first significant teaming with actor Christopher Lee (who played the monster)
1958 First played the role of Dracula s nemesis, Dr. Van Helsing, opposite Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, in The Horror of Dracula
1970 Made first of four films opposite actor Vincent Price, Scream and Scream Again
1973 Played Dr. Frankenstein for the fifth and last time, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
1976 First American made-for-TV movie, The Great Houdini , starring Paul Michael Glaser in the title role; Cushing played Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1978 Played Dr. Van Helsing for the fifth and last time in The Satanic Rites of Dracula , opposite Lee as Count Dracula
1986 Last feature film, Biggles
1992 Clip of Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing and Lee as Dracula from The Horror of Dracula used in John Landis s horror feature, Innocent Blood
Joined Laurence Olivier s acting company at the Old Vic Theater after the war
Returned to England to help entertain the troops during WWII
Was very busy and acclaimed in the early years of British TV
Worked for a time as a surveyor s clerk before moving into acting as a profession

1977 - Star Wars - Grand Moff Tarkin - He was the guy who was the head of the Death Star and ordered the destruction of Princess Leah's planet - Alderan, by the Death Star.

Dorothy Curren, L.S. - First woman to become a Licensed Land
Surveyor in California when she passed the examination in 1945.

Interesting reading in the attached 1974 Summer Edition of "The California
Surveyor"

http://www.californiasurveyors.org/file ... SURV33.pdf

Enjoy the reading. Some cool vintage equipment advertisements!

What about for portraying a surveyor:

Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. - Surveyor in Sanford & Son episode "This Land Is Whose Land" 1974 - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... type=&aq=f
(funny episode - and surveys were cheap back then - $25)

Hugh Grant - The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1994)

Shambeck wrote:Did we forget the most famous surveyor of all?

That's not Snoopy, but the clip says it is "The County Surveyor", heheheee!

Jack Nicholson played a shifty surveyor in "Goin' South"

What about Ronald Reagan? There was a photo of him with a theodolite in that sold at the auction at the CLSA conference a few years ago.

Edit: It looks like Mr. Regan did do some Surveying see: http://www.amerisurv.com/content/view/4034/150/

I also found this print for sale:

http://store.bnpmedia.com/store/aec_onl ... index.html

a "people"?.

bruce hall wrote:a "people"?.

By my interpretation . . . YES!!!

John Wayne and Oliver Hardy in "The Fighting Kentuckian"

John Wesley Powell - Explored much of the Rockies, including the Green and Colorado Rivers (Lake Powell is named after him), and was the director of USGS from 1880 to 1894.

I know several

Evan
Ian
George
Howard
Rick
Scott
Keith
and the list goes on

Who was that surveyor who re-created washington DC ?
I'd say he was pretty famous ? no ?

famous, we would all know his name. no?

Was it Ellicot? Probably not. Maybe he was the guy who originally "created" Washington DC. I can't remember who re-created it. My memory fails me sometimes to my own detriment.

William B. Ide, father of the California Republic.

Loyd Bridges had a role as a rodman on a survey, mapping a Japanese held island, in "Home of the Brave". Made in 1949

Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark--one of my favorite movies of all time.

Theodore Judah. Split personality since he was also a CE. Architect of the first transcontinental railroad.

well, the title of this thread says " Famous people who were Land Surveyors not played as one, but I can remember of a movie with Hugh Grant, "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain".