Gabriel Narutowicz

Gabriel Jozef Narutowicz (1865-1922) was a Polish engineer who spent most of his career as a pioneer of hydroelectric power in Switzerland before becoming the first elected president of Poland. Working in Switzerland from the 1890s through the 1910s, he directed the construction of some of Europe earliest hydroelectric plants, at Monthey, Muhleberg and Andelsbuch, held a professorship at ETH Zurich water construction institute from 1907, served as the institute dean from 1913 to 1919, and chaired the international committee that regulated the Rhine River beginning in 1915. He returned to Poland in 1919 and served as Minister of Public Works from 1920, overseeing the reconstruction of nearly 270,000 buildings and 300 bridges by 1921 along with about 200 kilometers of new highway, and he designed dams and a hydroelectric power plant on the Sola River in the Beskid Mountains. He became the first elected president of Poland in December 1922 and was assassinated five days later. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/