Theodore J. Hoover (1871-1955)

American Mining Engineer, Conservationist and Educator

2016 Inductee from Mining's Past

Theodore Jesse Hoover, the older brother of President Herbert Hoover, graduated from Stanford University in 1901 with a BA degree in Geology and Mining.

Hoover’s professional career began as an assayer at Keystone Consolidated Mining Company. A year later he joined Standard Consolidated Mine as an Assistant Manager where he successfully applied the Moore Slimes Process in recovering gold from slimes.  This made Standard Consolidated financially strong and Hoover was promptly promoted to Manager.

In 1907, Hoover became the General Manager of Minerals Separation, Ltd. in London, a firm founded to buy and license the new froth flotation process to recover minerals from ores. He directed the firm for over four years, and had a large influence in the design and development of a very successful flotation machine.

Hoover then became successful as an international consultant, engineer or administrator of many mining companies in Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and America.  He was the author of Concentrating Ores by Flotation (1912), Economics of Mining (1933), and The Engineering Profession (1941) and of numerous technical articles.

In 1919, Hoover returned to Stanford. He was the principal guide in the formation of the School of Engineering and served as Dean of the Department from 1925 until his retirement in 1936.  Under Hoover’s leadership, Stanford developed a strong engineering curriculum.

Equally revered as a naturalist, Hoover was a founding member of the Cooper Ornithological Society.  Hoover Lake in Santa Clara County and the Theodore J. Hoover National Preserve in northern Santa Cruz County, both in California, were named in his honor.