T. R. (Thomas Radford) Agg

Born in Fairfield, Iowa, on May 17, 1878, Thomas Radford Agg studied at Iowa State College and earned a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1905. He later joined the faculty there, serving first as an assistant professor and then as a professor of civil engineering, with a focus on highway engineering.

Agg is best remembered for writing clear, technical books on road building, including The Construction of Roads and Pavements and American Rural Highways. In the preface to American Rural Highways, he explained that the book was written as a text and reference for agricultural engineers, students, and extension courses, which helps show how strongly his work was tied to practical education.

He also served Iowa State as dean of engineering and director of the Engineering Experiment Station from 1932 to 1946. Agg died in 1947, leaving behind a body of work closely linked to the rise of modern rural transportation in the United States.