Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 05:33:19 :
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, July 12, 2002
A-24
Marvin W. Brigham
by Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
A private memorial service has been held in Sacramento for Marvin Walter Brigham, the former director of public works in Marin County and a key figure in the construction of the Marin County Civic Center and the Richmond- San Rafael Bridge.
Mr. Brigham died June 29 of pneumonia in a Sacramento convalescent hospital.
He was 88.
Mr. Brigham, a native of Tamora, Neb., a graduate of the University of Nebraska and a U.S. Army major during World War II, worked as a civil engineer in Marin County before being appointed public works director in 1952.
As Marin County expanded dramatically, Mr. Brigham guided that growth and found himself at the center of several controversies, including a well- publicized standoff with a retired state Supreme Court justice who disagreed with Mr. Brigham's decree that a dam on his property would fail. A court battle followed, and, before it was resolved, the dam burst during a storm and flooded neighbors' property with flopping trout.
In 1953, he was in the middle of a conflict over the newly built bypass road around Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. The road, built on a marsh, immediately filled with potholes.
"(We) gambled and lost," Mr. Brigham said at the time. "If we had $150,000 or so, we could fix it up in no time."
He left Marin County in 1962 to become a facilities manager in the Marshall Islands and a civil engineer on highway projects in Ethiopia and Guatemala and a rice refinery in Indonesia.
He retired in 1976 to an apple orchard near Placerville.
Mr. Brigham is survived by three sons, Daniel Brigham of Orinda, Stephen Brigham of Shingle Springs (El Dorado County) and Thomas Brigham of Rogue River, Ore.; and a daughter, Linda Burkhart of Gig Harbor, Wash. His wife of 63 years, Claire, died in 1999.
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