On September 18, 1930, in accordance witli Special Order No. 72, issued by the Office of 

 Chief of Engineers, this board came into official existence and was given the name. Beach 

 Erosion Board. Its original membership consisted of the following: (Corps officers*) Col. 

 William J. Barden, Senior Member; Col. Earl I. Brown; Lt. Col. Elliott J. Dent; Maj. Gordon 

 R. Young; (State agency engineers) Richard K. Hale, Associate Commissioner, Department 

 of Pubhc Works, Massachusetts; Victor J. Gelineau, Chief Engineer, New Jersey State Board 

 of Commerce and Navigation; and Thorndike Saville, Chief Engineer, Department of 

 Conservation and Development, North CaroUna. (A Ust of these and all subsequent members 

 of the Beach Erosion Board can be found in Appendix B.) 1st Lt. Leland H. Hewitt was 

 assigned to act as Recorder for the Board. (Fig. 8 is a picture of the members of tiie first 

 BEB.) The names of most of these first BEB members have been mentioned previously in 

 this history, suggesting a continuity among tlie concerned with beach problems. This 

 continuity, particularly of Board members from State agencies, persisted tliroughout the 

 BEB's entire existence and proved to be a factor of great importance. 



With the creation of the BEB, the BSMBE ceased to exist. The BEB continued the 

 BSMBE's work on basic shore processes; the BSMBE 's other function— examination of shore 

 problems on Federal property and problems related to the coastal navigation works of the 

 Corps of Engineers— was assumed by a second new board, the Shore Protection Board. The 

 Shore Protection Board was also created by Special Order No. 72, and its four all-military 

 members were the same men as the four military members of the BEB. Although the scope 

 of the work of these two Boards differed to some degree, there was a general interchange 

 between them regarding basic problems of mutual concern. They also shared the same staff. 

 The Shore Protection Board continued as a separate entity until May 1946 when it was 

 aboUshed and the BEB absorbed its function.^ ^ 



The estabUshment of the BEB was, therefore, the result of action taken by the ASBPA 

 which, in turn, owed its formation to the activities of a committee of the National Researcli 



•Coastal engineering, as in later years the field came to be known, was in an experimental stage at the time the 

 Beach Erosion Board was organized in 1930. Knowledge concerning coastal processes and shoreline problems was 

 not only quite limited in toto but was also restricted in its general distribution among professional people. During 

 these early years, the military members of the Board were closely involved in the scientific aspects of coastal 

 inquiry. The same had been true of the all-military membership of the Board on Sand Movement and Beach 

 Erosion. This fact can be exempUfied by citing a few of the published works of several of these early U.S. Army, 

 Corps of Engineer officers. 



Col. Earl I. Brown's "Inlets on Sandy Coasts," which appeared in the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil 

 Engineers in 1928, has been referred to as "apparently . . . the first analytical treatment of the hydraulic regimen 

 of inlets on sandy coasts."50 Brig. Gen. George E. Pillsbury published in November 1939 a book entitled, Tidal 

 Hydraulics. This work is still regarded as a basic reference on that subject. Col. Elliott J. Dent had long been an 

 astute observer of shore processes. As early as 1916, he published an article in the Transactions, American Society 

 of Civil Engineers, entitled, "The Preservation of Sandy Beaches in the Vicinity of New York City." This article 

 reveals Dent's appreciation of the need to discover the causes of beach erosion, in order to devise effective means 

 of prevention. He stated, "Some explanation as to why existing structures have failed should be forthcoming 

 before we are asked to place our faith in additional work so nearly like the old that we are unable to see any 

 essential difference. "51 



In the decades that followed, interest in coastal processes became more dispersed, especially among the various 

 universities and research institutions. Thus, the civilian component began to play a greater role in the field of 

 coastal engineering than it had during these formative years. 



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