Papers of Royce J. Tipton

Over the course of his fifty-year career, Colorado civil engineer Royce J. Tipton designed numerous large water infrastructure projects in the U.S. West and around the world. As an accomplished and respected consultant, he helped negotiate several interstate water compacts and international treaties.

Born to Basil F. Tipton and Sara C. Tipton in Litchfield, Illinois, on March 23, 1893, Royce J. Tipton grew up in Cripple Creek, Colorado. After graduating high school in 1911, Tipton taught school and worked for mining and irrigation companies near Crestone, Colorado. In 1915, he entered the University of Colorado to study civil engineering. World War I interrupted his studies, and in 1918 he served as 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers with the American Expedition Forces in France and Germany. Tipton did not return to school, but the University of Colorado awarded him an honorary civil engineering bachelor's degree in 1940.

After the war, Tipton returned to engineering as a consultant. Several organizations and firms in the San Luis Valley employed him before he formed Watrous & Tipton, Consulting Engineers, in Monte Vista, Colorado, in 1923. In 1928, he left private practice to become the design engineer for the Rio Mante Project, Mexico. From 1929 to 1933, he conducted water supply studies for Boulder Canyon Reservoir (Lake Mead) for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and served as special engineer in charge of interstate river investigations and water resource surveys for the State Engineer of Colorado during the Tri-State Rio Grande Compact negotiations. Later in his career he helped negotiate interstate river compacts, such as the Pecos River Compact (1949), and international water treaties, such as the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and many organizations hired him as an expert witness for legal cases involving water disputes. Tipton also continued private consulting in the 1930s, and during World War II, he completed contracts for the War Department.

During the 1940s and 1950s, he created five consulting companies for domestic and international projects. He liquidated three and, in 1960, merged two under the name Tipton and Kalmbach. Tipton's firms focused primarily on the planning and design of water infrastructure, especially for irrigation and municipal supply. He consulted in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Cuba, Egypt, West Pakistan, and New Zealand and all over the U.S. West, including for the Roberts Tunnel (Dillon Reservoir) and Colorado-Big Thompson Project.

Tipton also participated in many professional organizations and earned both awards and the respect of his peers. A registered Professional Engineer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Wyoming, Tipton held membership in the Colorado Society of Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Geophysical Union, International Congress on Hydraulic Research, Tau Beta Phi, Chi Epsilon, and other technical societies. He served the ASCE as vice president (1965-1967) and president or chair of several state and national committees, led the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) as vice president (1964-1966) and president (1966-1967), and was president of the Colorado Society of Engineers (1935). He received the Colorado Engineering Council Gold Medal Award (1963), the University of Colorado's Norlin Medal (1958), and CU's College of Engineering Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award (1966).

Tipton and his first wife, Natalie Knight Tipton, had three children, John, Robert, and Jean (Milaskey). After Natalie's death in 1961, he married his former secretary, Jincy Hunt, in 1962. Tipton died on December 23, 1967.