Obituary

Edward Martin Shepard, Jr., electrical engineer, of Detroit, Michigan, died suddenly of pneumonia in that city Mar. 24th, 1920. He was born in Springfield, Missouri, Aug. 27th, 1889. He was graduated from Drury College in 1910, and went directly to Cornell University, where he was graduated in 1913 with the degree of electrical engineer. In the fall of that year he became connected with the Wagner Electrical Company, of St. Louis, and was soon sent to act as the engineer in their branch in Detroit. He resigned from this work to become a partner in the firm of Little & Shepard, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, in Detroit. Immediately upon the declaration of war, he enlisted and received his commission as First Lieutenant at Fort Sheridan the summer of 1917. From Camp Humphries, Va., he was sent over seas Sept. 19, 1918 in command of B Company of a service battalion of the 544th Engineers, and was commissioned Captain May 1, 1919. In the battle of the Argonne his company was in charge of keeping open lines of transportation. After the armistice, his company did much work in road construction in that region, and later in the neighborhood of Brest. Captain Shepard was honorably discharged from service at Camp Grant, Illinois, Aug. 1, 1919. He returned to Detroit and immediately entered upon a responsible connection with the engineering department of the Detroit-Edison Company, which position he held at the time of his death. He came of good old New England stock, the last of a long line of Mayflower descendants, being 10th in descent from Governor Wm. Bradford, and a most promising career was cut short by his death.