California utility names its accounting system after ENR economics pioneer Elsie Eaves—a look back at Elsie and an update on the big year for current economics editor Alisa Zevin
Construction economics pioneer ENR’s Elsie Eaves is still drawing recognition today. Eaves joined ENR in 1926, five years after the magazine introduced its Construction Cost Index, but she was the one who made the indexes an industry standard. A large water-wastewater utility serving the eastern San Francisco Bay Area recently held a competition to name its new financial system, and the winner was Elsie Eaves.
Sophia Skoda, finance director of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, told ENR about the competition and said the utility uses the ENR Cost Indexes frequently. The note about the new name to staff said, Eaves “earned her civil engineering degree in 1920 … and made many significant contributions to our industry including serving as a founding member of what is now the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering. She would have been a perfect fit as a district employee, so her name is a perfect fit for our new financial system!”