{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} '''Felix Edgar Wormser'''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wormser, Felix Edgar, 1894- {{!}} The Online Books Page|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Wormser,%20Felix%20Edgar,%201894-|access-date=2021-07-13|website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}</ref> (died June 29, 1981) was an American engineering and former government official who served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Mineral Resources in the United States Department of the Interior from 1954 to 1957.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Buck|first=Alice|date=August 1980|title=The Office of Oil and Natural Gas Supply Development|url=https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6815091|access-date=July 13, 2021|website=U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information|page=21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=November 20, 1956|title=72. Minutes of the 49th Meeting of the Council on Foreign Economic Policy, Executive Office Building, Washington, November 20, 1956|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v09/d72|access-date=July 13, 2021|website=Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State}}</ref>

==Biography== Wormser was born in Santa Barbara, California and graduated from Columbia University, where he received a degree in mining engineering in 1916 from the Columbia School of Mines.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Affairs|first=United States Congress Senate Committee on Interior and Insular|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FdFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Felix+Wormser&pg=PA1|title=Nomination of Felix Edgar Wormser: Hearings Before the United States Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, on Apr. 13, 1953|date=1953|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}}</ref> At Columbia, he was a member of the men's varsity crew team.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0o0hAQAAMAAJ&dq=felix+wormser+columbia+board+of+trustees&pg=PA798|title=Columbia Alumni News|date=1917|publisher=Alumni Council of Columbia University.|language=en}}</ref>

He was employed by the United States Bureau of Mines until 1919, when he served in the United States Army.<ref name=":0" /> From 1920 to 1925, Wormser was a member of the editorial staff of McGraw Hill. He then worked as a consulting mining engineer from 1925 to 1947.<ref name=":0" /> He was a trustee of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers from 1940 to 1945.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Felix E. Wormser {{!}} The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers|url=https://aimehq.org/about-us/governance/past-trustees/felix-e-wormser|access-date=2021-07-14|website=aimehq.org}}</ref>

Wormser was secretary-treasurer of the Lead Industries Association and vice president of St. Joe Minerals from 1947 to 1953, when he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Mineral Resources by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=1981-06-30|title=Felix Wormser, 86, Dies; A Consultant on Mining|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/30/obituaries/felix-wormser-86-dies-a-consultant-on-mining.html|access-date=2021-07-13|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Wormser was a close associate of President Eisenhower when he led Columbia University as president. He was a member of the board of trustees of Columbia and was tapped by Eisenhower to head a $12 million fundraising drive for an engineering center, which he belied was vital due to a lack of engineering and technical personnel in the United States vis-a-vis the Soviet Union.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Expansive Reading|url=https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/expansive-reading|access-date=2021-07-14|website=Columbia Magazine|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Columbia Daily Spectator 1 March 1956 — Columbia Spectator|url=http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19560301-01.2.9&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|access-date=2021-07-14|website=spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu}}</ref>

In 1956, he received the Thomas Egleston Medal from Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science, the highest award bestowed to alumni and graduates of the school.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Columbia Daily Spectator 14 March 1956 — Columbia Spectator|url=http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19560314-01.2.17&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|access-date=2021-07-14|website=spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Egleston Medal - CEAA|url=https://myceaa.org/awards/egleston-medal|access-date=2021-07-14|website=myceaa.org}}</ref>

He died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on June 29, 1981. He was 86 years old and was survived by his wife, two daughters, and nine grandchildren.<ref name=":1" />

==References== <references />

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wormser, Felix}} Category:1981 deaths Category:United States Department of the Interior officials Category:Columbia School of Mines alumni Category:Columbia Lions rowers Category:American engineers Category:People from Santa Barbara, California Category:Scientists from Santa Barbara, California Category:Sportspeople from Santa Barbara, California