Charles Frederic Rand
Charles Frederic Rand (c1857-1927)
1927 Obituary [1]
CHARLES FREDERIC RAND died on June 21, 1927, at his home in West Orange, N.J., at the age of seventy.
He was a member of the family to which the mining industry owes the Rand drill and air compressor, but his own professional career began in railway construction. His association with the mining industry commenced in 1886, and for the next twenty years his interests lay mainly in the Lake Superior region, where he was the representative of the Rockefeller interests in many important enterprises.
He was identified later with the construction of railways and the opening up and operation of mines in Cuba, where he found his major life work. His attention was attracted to the great laterite deposits on the north coast of Cuba. He recognised their value, and in the face of much discouragement found the means of bringing them into production. In the years 1906 to 1909 he developed and equipped the great Mayari properties.
From 1901 to 1916 he was in charge of the mining interests of the Pennsylvania Steel Co., and from 1910 to 1917 he was President of the Buena Vista Iron Mining Co. He took a prominent part in the affairs of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. He was one of the organisers of the United Engineering Society, the Engineering Foundation, the John Fritz Medal Board of Award, and the Mining Medal Board.
In 1913 King Alfonso XIII. decorated him with the Grand Cross of Commander of the Order of Isabella la Catolica. He was decorated in 1922 with the Croix de Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur for distinguished services during the World War. He was elected in 1921 an Hon. Member of the Iron and Steel Institute; this honour was bestowed upon him when in England as Hon. Secretary of the John Fritz Medal Board of Award, which bestowed the John Fritz Medal for achievement in applied science on Sir Robert Hadfield, and, later, in Paris, bestowed the medal for 1922 upon Mr. Eugene Schneider, head of the famous Creusot Works. He was a Past-President of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and was a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, National Research Council, and American Society for Testing Materials.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1907.