Alfred Perkins Rockwell was a mining engineer. Having graduated from Yale in 1855, he studied mining engineering at Yale's Scheffield School for two years (A.M., 1858). Rockwell spent a year at the Museum of Practical Geology in London, and one year at the School of Mines, Freiberg, Saxony (Ph.B., 1857). He taught at Yale, 1865-1868, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1868-1873. At the outset of the Civil War, Rockwell returned to the United States and accepted a commission as Captain of the 1st Connecticut Light Artillery, earning a promotion to Colonel of the 6th Connecticut Infantry during the Petersburg Campaign of 1864 and finally a brevet to Brigadier General. He married Katharine Virginia Foote (1839-1902) after mustering out of the service in June 1865, and served briefly on the Board of Visitors at the U.S. Military Academy before returning to his alma mater as professor of mining at the Sheffield School. Barely three years later, he moved to a similar position at MIT, however by 1873, he made the decision to leave academia for other opportunities. In the aftermath of the devastating fire of 1872 that consumed much of downtown Boston, Rockwell was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Fire Commissioners in Boston, after which he served president of the Eastern Railroad (1876-1879) and from 1879 until his retirement in 1886, as treasurer of the Great Falls (N.H.) Manufacturing Co., a textile firm. Rockwell also earned income from land and other investments, including stock in the Minas Nuevas Mining Company, a lead and silver mining company in Mexico.
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