Captain Edward Laird

I did not believe my early experiences in the Lighthouse Service over sixty years ago were of any interest to most people, but after making several tours with the Lighthouse Society, I have met a peculiar breed of people who are intensely interested in anything pertaining to lighthouses. So for those people, I will try and write a few recollections. I got into the Lighthouse Service chance in 1927; although I was raised near the sea at Coos Bay, Oregon, where I frequently explored the Old Cape Arago Lighthouse.

After graduating as a civil engineer from Oregon State University and taking a Civil Service examination early in 1927, I entered the Lighthouse Service in San Francisco as a Junior Engineer. I was transferred to the Alaskan district as an assistant engineer about March of 1930. Captain Dibrill was superintendent. He had gained his title from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Service, where he had been an officer and captain of one of their vessels. I do not know when he came to Alaska, but he had been there many years by the time I arrived.