Thomas M. Gardner papers

Thomas Mooney Gardner was born in Bedford, IN on August 22, 1872. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue in 1892, and completed a Master's at Cornell University in 1896.

After earning his Bachelor's, Thomas remained at Purdue for the 1892-1893 school year, working as an Assistant in the Electrical Laboratory. From 1893-1894 Thomas ran his own engineering practice, before returning to academia as a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Throop Polytechnic Institute (today the California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena, California (1894-1895).

From 1896-1899 Thomas worked in construction, before teaching as an Instructor in Experimental Engineering at Cornell University (1899-1901); a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Pratt Institute (1901-1902); an Instructor and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell (1902-1905); and Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois (1905-1906). While at the University of Illinois, Thomas was in charge of the railway street car installed at the university for testing purposes - it was the first street car of its kind.

Thomas was Professor of Electrical Engineering for the Oregon Agricultural College (today Oregon State University) from 1906 until at least 1909. While at Oregon, Thomas also acted as an advisor for the student branch of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, following its 1908 addition to the college.

By 1915 Thomas was working for the Hendryx Hotel in Kansas City Missouri, before switching to a consulting engineer in Indianapolis sometime prior to 1929. He would continue this work until at least 1934.