Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Hanson County
Electrical Engineering ,
Albert “Bill” Billman began his college courses at South Dakota State College in 1923 and worked in the college power plant as assistant fireman until his graduation in 1927. Following graduation, he worked with the Texas Power and Light Company in Dallas, TX and married his college sweetheart, Edythe Lee, a 1928 SDSC graduate. He would work for Texas Power and Light until 1941 when he left and began a distinguished career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. For the next 29 years he worked on the construction of some of the most sophisticated and secret military facilities including several army training bases, a prisoner of war camp and several “cold war” defense systems. His work as Supervisory Construction Engineer for the top secret U.S. Air Force SAGE projects in the 1950s was truly historic. His involvement in overseeing the construction of the Minuteman ICBM missile site facilities in Wyoming was also of historic significance. Their construction was among some of the most sophisticated of military facilities. Billman also oversaw the construction of two veterans administration hospitals: in Omaha and Sioux Falls; Denison Dam on the Red River, Texas and two Missouri River Main Stem Dams: Gavin’s Point Dam and Big Bend Dam; and a U.S. Postal Service distribution center in Lincoln, Nebraska. During his tenure with the Corps of Engineers, Bill received numerous awards and commendations for his work. He died in 1994 in Madison.