Seeley Wintersmith Mudd died at St. Louis, Mo., U.S.A., on May 24th, 1926, after a serious operation.
He was born in Kirkwood, Mo., in 1861, and graduated from Washington University, St. Louis, with the degree of Engineer of Mines. His first appointment was as assayer, later as superintendent, in the copper department of the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Co., by whom he was employed from 1888 to 1885. Thence he went to Leadville, Colo., where he was manager of the Small Hopes Consolidated and Boreel Mining Companies until 1912, also acting as manager of the lbex Mining Company from 1899 to 1902.
For two years he was consulting engineer in the West for the New Jersey Zinc Co., and later, on moving to Los Angeles, Cal., he was appointed consulting engineer on the Pacific coast for the Guggenheim Exploration Co., and the American Smelting &: Refining Co. During this period he introduced to the attention of the Guggenheims the Dairy Farm property in California and the Utah copper deposit in Bingham Canyon.
In 1907, having resigned that position, he became actively interested in developing the Ray Consolidated mine as a producer of low-grade ore. From that date he was engaged in general examination and consulting work, and among other enterprises that he inaugurated were the United Eastern Co.’s mine and the development of the sulphur deposits of the Texas Gulf Sulphur Co., of which concern he was a director at the date of his death. During the war he was assistant director, under D.C. Jackling, of the U.S. explosives plants, and retired from military work in 1919 with the rank of Colonel, to resume consulting work at Los Angeles. He was president of the Cyprus Mines Corporation, and of the Coeur d’Alene Syndicate Mining Co., as well as director of other mining companies.
Mr. Mudd was elected a Member of the Institution in 1910.
Vol. 36, Trans IMM 1926-27, p.533-34
[Google – He was an advocate for education and, among other gifts in his will, provided one million dollars for the Claremont College in Pomona, California, where he had been chairman of its board.]
