Bailey Willis

Bailey Willis (1857 to 1949) was an American geological engineer who worked for the United States Geological Survey and lectured at two prominent American universities. Born at Idle Wild on the Hudson in New York, he was the son of the poet and publisher Nathaniel Parker Willis. At thirteen he was taken to England and Germany for four years of schooling, which gave him fluency in German at a time when many scientific texts appeared only in that language, and he later earned engineering degrees at Columbia University. He played a key role in getting Mount Rainier designated a national park in 1899. Later he focused more on structural geology and seismology and became one of the leading earthquake experts of his time, and he was also a prominent opposer of the continental drift theory.