Harry Harwood Rousseau, 1870-1930, was born in Troy, New York. Valedictorian at Troy High School in 1887, he continued his education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1891. Between his studies and naval career, Rousseau worked for the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Company and Pittsburgh Bridge Company.

In 1898, he was commissioned as an officer with the Civil Engineer Corps of the U.S. Navy. From 1899 to 1903, he served under the Bureau of Yards and Docks under Rear Admiral Mordecai Endicott. Rousseau was involved in the planning of naval stations including the base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. While assigned to the Mare Island Naval Yard in California in 1903, he oversaw the construction of dry docks and the dredging of a channel at Pinhole Point.

Rousseau was appointed chief of the Bureau of Docks in 1906, a temporary posting before being selected by President Theodore Roosevelt to serve on the third Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC).

He arrived in Panama in 1907 where he was put in charge of the Department of Building Construction, Motive Power and Machinery, and Municipal Engineering. The department was responsible for excavation, lock construction, and sanitation. This also included extensive infrastructure to support tens of thousands of workers.

While working in the Canal Zone he met Gladys Fargo Squiers. She was the daughter of Herbert Goldsmith Squiers, then U.S. Minister to Panama. They married in 1908 despite opposition from her parents. They had three children together.

In 1908, a large reorganization placed Rousseau as Assistant to the Chief Engineer working directly for Colonel George W. Goethals. In 1911, he began supervising the construction of the canal terminals at Cristobal and Balboa. The ICC was terminated in 1914 but Rousseau stayed on until May of 1916.

In 1915, he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral, the youngest in the history of the Navy. He left The Canal Zone in 1916 and returned to Washington, D.C. His duties during the First World War were mainly administrative and included a study and report on the nation’s coastal defenses as part of the Helm Commission. He also served as Director of Naval Petroleum (Oil) Reserves.

In 1923, Rousseau delivered the commencement address at RPI. In his duties as director of both the Panama Railroad Company and Panama Steamship Company, he was enroute to the Canal Zone on board the SS Cristobel for an inspection when he suffered a stroke and died in 1930. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. After his death, he was featured on a 20 cent stamp. During the Second World War, Camp Rousseau served as a naval hospital on the Atlantic side of the canal.