James Baird ( civil engineer ) James Baird ( May 18 , 1873 – May 16 , 1953 ) was an American civil engineer , football player and coach . He played football for the University of Michigan from 1892 to 1895 and was captain of the 1894 team . He was also an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897 to 1898 . He worked for the George A . Fuller Co . for 23 years and eventually became its president . He later formed his own construction company called the James Baird Company . Baird directed the construction of many important buildings , including the Flatiron Building , Lincoln Memorial , Arlington Memorial Amphitheater , and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier . Early years . Baird was born in Vanceburg , Kentucky and attended high schools in Chicago , Illinois and Ann Arbor , Michigan . His father , Lyman Beecher Baird ( September 6 , 1833 - October 24 , 1907 ) , was an Ohio native who worked as a farmer and merchant . In the 1880 United States Census , Lyman Baird was identified as a grocer in Vanceburg . He also operated a hardware store in Vanceburg that burned in the 1880s . His mother was Frances Amelia ( Halbert ) Baird , and he had an older brother Charles A . Baird ( born c . 1869 ) . University of Michigan . He enrolled at the University of Michigan where he played quarterback for the football team from 1892 to 1895 . He was captain of the 1894 Michigan team that finished with a 9 – 1 – 1 record and recorded the school ' s first victory against one of the Eastern football powers with a 12 – 4 win over Cornell at the Detroit Athletic Club ' s field in Detroit . Baird played quarterback for the 1895 Michigan team that compiled an 8 – 1 record , won seven of their games by shutouts , and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to 14 . The sole loss of the 1895 season was a 4 – 0 setback against the Harvard Crimson , then one of the three great football powers . Michigan finished the season with a 12 – 0 win over Western rival , Amos Alonzo Stagg ' s Chicago Maroons . Undefeated against Western opponents , the 1895 Wolverines laid claim to the Western football championship . At the end of the 1895 season , one Chicago newspaper , the " Daily Inter Ocean " selected Baird as the substitute quarterback on its All - Western team . Baird studied civil engineering at Michigan and received his bachelor ' s degree in 1896 . Baird ' s brother Charles A . Baird was the manager of the 1894 and 1895 football teams at Michigan and later became the university ' s first athletic director . After graduating , Baird served as an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897 to 1898 , including the 1898 Michigan team that won the school ' s first Western Conference championship . At the end of the 1898 season , the " Chicago Inter - Ocean " singled out Baird for his work in coaching the Michigan team : " They had been a disorganized team three weeks before , but Jimmy Baird had come on to maneuver the backs , stop the fumbling , and put snap and life into the team . As a coach he has been a wonderful success . No one who knows his record as a captain can doubt that he is a worker of miracles to whose power Michigan ' s wonderful improvement is due . He was continually working over his men or defensive play , when he played the game himself , slapping them on the back , cheering up one , and swearing at another , until Michigan ' s team became a power and a terror . This year he left his business to rush back at the last moment to lick the team into shape for a victory . " Construction career . After graduating from Michigan , Baird had a successful career in the construction industry . He started as a timekeeper for the Guaranty Construction Co . of Chicago and then as an engineer for Moulton - Starrett Co . of Columbus , Ohio , and Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . In 1899 , Baird began a 23 - year association with the George A . Fuller Co . , a leading builder of skyscrapers and inventor of the modern contracting system . In December 1900 , " The New York Times " wrote : " No other firm in the world , perhaps , has played so large a part in revolutionizing the building trade as the George A . Fuller Company , and to it primarily is due the credit of having originated many of the actual construction methods now in use . " Baird began working for the Fuller Company in New York City and directed the erection of the Flatiron Building , the first steel - frame skyscraper in New York City . He moved to Boston in 1902 as the firm ' s general superintendent . He was transferred to Washington , D . C . in 1904 as a district manager . He rose through the ranks of the company to become vice president in 1910 and president in May 1922 . While working with the Fuller Company , Baird supervised the construction of the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater in 1916 , the Commodore Hotel in 1919 , the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921 , and the Freer Gallery of Art in 1923 . As the Lincoln Memorial neared completion , Baird wrote to " World ' s Work " magazine , " It is to be hoped that the Lincoln Memorial Building may exist for at least one thousand years , unless destroyed sooner by artificial means . " During World War I , Baird volunteered to construct cantonment s for the U . S . Army to house 20 , 000 to 30 , 000 men . In November 1918 , at the end of hostilities , Baird applied for a passport to travel to France and Belgium to represent the Fuller Company in selling building materials to be used in the post - war reconstruction efforts . Bernard Baruch , Chairman of the War Industries Board , wrote a letter in support of Baird ' s application in which he stated : " This is to certify that I know Mr . James Baird personally and have known him practically all my life , and that I know him to be an American born citizen born in Vanceburg , Ky . about 45 years ago . I know his father also , an American citizen born in America . " In 1923 , as a building boom created a shortage in skilled construction workers and supervisors , Baird served as Chairman of the Emergency Committee of the Mason Builders ' Association . He was an outspoken advocate for additional funding for teaching the building trades in the schools . In 1925 , Baird formed his own construction company , the James Baird Construction Co . , Inc . Baird and his company specialized in large construction projects and were responsible for the construction of many notable structures , including the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington , D . C . , an addition to the Corcoran Gallery of Art that opened in 1928 , the dome at St . Bartholomew ' s Episcopal Church , New York , the Brooklyn Printing Plant of " The New York Times " ( design by Albert Kahn ) , Hutchins Hall and the Cook Dormitory at the University of Michigan Law School , the Aeolian Building in New York , the Ferncliff Mausoleum in Hartsdale , New York , and the original ten buildings of the Madeira School in McLean , Virginia , and the Reynolds Building in Winston - Salem , North Carolina . Upon completion of " The New York Times " ' Brooklyn printing plant , the newspaper called the marble , granite , steel , copper and concrete the " jewel box " and noted that no expense had been spared in its construction . Family and philanthropy . Baird was married to Cornelia Cornelia Curtis ( born May 1875 ) at Chicago on March 28 , 1900 . They lived in Manhattan , and later in Washington , D . C . and the Village of Scarsdale , New York , and had two sons , John C . Baird ( born c . 1906 ) and Charles Baird ( born c . 1909 ) . Baird served as a trustee of the Village of Scarsdale from 1926 to 1927 . He was also a member of the Scarsdale Golf Club and the American Guernsey Cattle Club of Peterborough , New Hampshire . In 1939 , Baird donated his farm at Pleasant Valley , New York to the State of New York for use as a park . The park is now known as James Baird State Park . In 1936 , Baird traveled to Tucson , Arizona to seek relief from asthma . His health improved , and he made his permanent residence in Tucson for the last 17 years of his life . Baird was active in philanthropic causes in Tucson and donated $ 207 , 422 in 1948 to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Arizona . At the time Baird ' s gift was " the largest single scholarship gift ever made to the University of Arizona . " In May 1951 , Baird received an honorary degree of doctor of engineering from the University of Arizona in recognition of his work as an engineer , builder , contractor , business executive and philanthropist . In January 1948 , Baird welcome the University of Michigan Marching Band to Tucson as they returned from the 1948 Rose Bowl . He gave Michigan officials a tour of the University of Arizona campus and presented them with citrus from trees at the Baird residence at 4111 Calle El Centro in Tucson . Michigan ' s band conductor , William Revelli , told Baird the welcome received in Tucson was the most enthusiastic received and that the band members were pleased with the turnout . In May 1953 , Baird died two days short of his 80th birthday at St . Mary ' s Hospital in Tucson after a month ' s illness . Baird ' s widow died at Tucson in 1962 . He was buried in the Baird family plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Chicago .