Slattery, John R. (sold)

Colonel John R. Slattery (January 31, 1877 - September 23, 1932) was an American engineer, Army officer, and public servant. Born in Athens, Ohio, Slattery attended and graduated from public schools in Cincinnati before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated from West Point in 1900, was commissioned a second lieutenant, and entered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He spent the next 25 years in the Corps of Engineers. He spent 3 years in charge of the Honolulu district in Hawaii, where he worked on coastal defense plans and ways to improve the Honolulu and Hilo harbors. Then he worked on several projects in Kansas before being sent to Florida to oversee coastal defenses at Key West and Tampa Bay as well as improvements to rivers and harbors throughout the state. He also worked as the district manager of the Mississippi Delta region during his career, overseeing levee and bank revetment work. During World War I Slattery served with the 312th Engineers in Bordeaux, France, where he was in charge of coordinating the handling of supplies and the hospitalization of troops. After returning to the United States, he was assigned to the Seventh Army Corps (in charge of Columbia River improvements) as chief engineer. He became district engineer in charge of all river and harbor improvements in New York State in 1923. While in New York, he was convinced to join the New. York City Board of Transportation, which he joined on April 1, 1925, as deputy chief engineer. He also became general manager of the Independent Rapid Transit System. He was general manager when the Eighth Avenue Subway opened and his doctor stated that overwork dealing with the opening of the Eighth Avenue Subway directly caused Slattery's death. He married Elizabeth Bradley, with whom he had three children.