Charles H. Spaulding was a chemical engineer and water purification expert. He was born on May 25, 1888 to Lewis Herbert Spaulding and Mary [Johnson] Spaulding in Springfield, Illinois. His parents owned the Spaulding farm and nursery, and he was the younger brother of Willis J. Spaulding, who served as Springfield’s Commissioner of Public Property from 1912-1944.

Charles H. Spaulding received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1912. That same year he began working as a Chemist for the State Water Survey in Urbana, Illinois. In 1914 he took a job as Chemist and Superintendent of Reservoirs and Water Purification Plants in the Panama Canal Zone, where he remained for two years. Spaulding then spent one year as an Assistant Chemist for the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad in Topeka Kansas; one year as a Sanitary Bacteriologist for the U.S. Public Health Service in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island; one year as an Assistant Sanitary Engineer for the U.S. Public Health Service in Columbia, South Carolina; four years as an Assistant Sanitary Engineer for the U.S. Public Health Service in Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota; one year as a Filtration Engineer for the Oklahoma City Water Department; and two years with the engineering consulting firm Alvord, Burdick, and Howson in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 1926, Spaulding joined the Water Department in Springfield, where he remained until 1941. He worked first as a Chief Consultant for the Department and from 1933 as the General Superintendent and Director of Utilities. During his time in Springfield Spaulding designed the city’s water purification plant, acted as a supervising chemist and bacteriologist at the Lakeside Plant, and invented the Spaulding Precipitator, which was widely adopted for use in water treatment plants. When his brother, Commissioner Willis J. Spaulding, fell ill in 1933, Charles H. Spaulding was appointed by the City Council as the administrative assistant to the Commissioner. In this capacity he supervised the City Water, Light, and Power Department, assisted in the survey and acquisition of land to be used for Lake Springfield, and supervised the construction of Lake Springfield.

In 1942, Spaulding left Springfield to take a role as Consultant to the Water Supply Branch of the U.S. Army’s Engineer Research and Development Laboratories in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. While there, Spaulding headed research and development on diatomite water filtration equipment. This equipment was used to produce safe drinking water for troops deployed in tropical and sub-tropical areas, and at the sites of natural disasters. Spaulding remained in this position until 1950, and from 1950 to 1968 acted as a water purification consultant for the U.S. Army, the American Water Works Association, and private consulting firms and municipalities in the United States. From 1959 to 1968 he acted as a Consulting Chemist to Springfield’s Lakeside Filtration plant, at invitation from the city’s Commissioner John Hunter and without compensation.

Throughout his career, Spaulding received a number of awards and honors for his work, including a citation for voluntary service during the flu epidemic of 1918 from the U.S. Public Health Service; the John M. Goodell Prize from the American Waterworks Association in 1933; a Fellowship from the American Public Health Association in 1933; the George Warren Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association, and an Exceptional Civilian Service Decoration from the U.S. War Department in 1945 for the development of water filtration equipment.

Charles H. Spaulding married Kathleen Steinbauer (1893-1990) in 1917. Together they had two children, Charles Frederick Spaulding (1919-1994) and Kathleen Sarah “Sally” Spaulding (1930-2022). Charles H. Spaulding passed away on January 12, 1968.