Thomas Ben Warden

WARDEN, T. BEN (1882~1965) T. Ben Warden, Sr. was born in 1882. A native of McKinney, Warden graduated from Texas A&M College with a civil engineering degree. After his first job with Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Warden worked with a federal agency on rivers, harbors, and navigation. He started a road building career in Texas as assistant engineer of Limestone County, then moved to Jefferson as Marion County engineer. Warden was a founder of the Jefferson Rotary Club and served three terms, 1925 to 1927, as president of that group. He was also president of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce. Warden went to Houston next as engineering manager of the Gulf Coast Good Roads Association, and served as director of the Chamber of Commerce there. He moved to Dallas then as head of the Portland Cement Association, and came to Austin in 1932 when the organization?s state office was established here. Warden served in 1933 and 1934 as president of the ex-students association of Texas A&M, one of only six men ever elected twice to this post. He helped to organize the Texas Society of Professional Engineers in 1937 and served as TSPE president in 1944. He was also named to the statewide society?s Hall of Fame. Warden was a member of Austin Rotary Club from 1933 to 1955. He was elected president of Austin Chamber of Commerce in 1941, served as chairman of the Community Chest campaign, and was an Austin Civil Defense director from 1942 to 1945. During World War II years he headed Austin scrap drives for steel, rubber, fats, silk, and paper. He helped organize West Lake Hills Presbyterian Church and served on its board of elders for six years. Warden served as Governor Buford Jester?s campaign manager and was appointed to the State Board of Control in 1947. He was a member and then chairman of the board for six years before ill health forced his resignation in 1955. He represented the City of Austin before the Legislature in acquiring the 200-acre sand beach reserved on Colorado River, leading to construction of the low water dam and formation of Town Lake. Warden died February 3, 1965, in Austin, Texas, at 82 years of age. Biography taken from Austin American-Statesman, February 3, 1965.