MARGARET S. PETERSEN:
A Biographical Sketch
Margaret Petersen was born in Rock Island, Illinois in 1920. Living near the Mississippi
River, she became aware of the river at an early age. Visiting the farm of her great aunt on
Mississippi, she saw the river's power as the farm flooded every spring.
After graduating from high school in 1938, Petersen attended Augustana College in Rock
Island for one full year and then part-time in the evening school until January 1943.She joined the
Corps of Engineers in June 1942 and worked as a draftsman in the Rock Island District.
In the winter of 1942, she was selected as one of ten draftsman to go to Panama to complete
contract drawings for the Three Locks Project. While in Panama, Petersen saved enough money to
return to school. She attended the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa, earning a
Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering in January of 1947. She began her first job as a hydraulic
engineer at the Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in Vicksburg in August of 1947 and thus
became one of the pioneering women in the field of hydraulic engineering in the Corps of Engineer.
At WES she worked on data for the design and operation of the Mississippi Basin Model.
Believing that she needed an advanced degree to better understand her work in hydraulics,
Petersen returned to the University of Iowa in 1952 and received the Masters Degree in Mechanics
and Hydraulics in 1953. After graduation, she worked as a hydraulic engineer at the Missouri River
Division (MRD) in Omaha, Nebraska. She reviewed designs of spillways and other structures to
insure that hydraulic functioning and operation fulfill requirements and intended uses. She also
worked on various navigation and stabilization projects on the Missouri River.
Margaret Petersen wanted the experience of working at a district level, so she transferred to
the Little Rock District in September
There she worked in the hydraulic design section on
river engineering, working on bank stabilization and channel rectification on the Arkansas River.
In January 1961, she became Chief of the Channel Hydraulics Investigation Section. She was
responsible for hydraulic studies related to the navigation channel on the Arkansas River, including
stream reaches, the layout and design of the entrance channel on the lower White River, and the
siting of navigation locks and dams on the Arkansas River to assure adequate navigation conditions.
From Little Rock, Petersen returned to WES in Vicksburg in April 1964 to work as Chief of
the Wave Dynamics Section. She was responsible for projects in coastal engineering relating to
navigation problems in harbors, bays, and estuaries because of hurricane wind, wind tide, and
hurricane-generated short-period waves.
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