Hayford, John F.

Hayford, John F. (Fillmore)

(1868–1925) geodesist; born in Rouses Point, N.Y. He clarified the U.S.-Mexican boundary (1892–93); helped define the Alaskan boundary (1894); was appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Douglass White to settle the boundary dispute between Panama and Costa Rica (1913); and served on President Woodrow Wilson's advisory committee on aeronautics. His astronomical and mathematical contributions to the U.S. Geodetic Survey helped bring that organization to international prominence.