The President today announced that he will nominate Brig. Gen. William E. Read, Corps of Engineers, to be a member of the Mississippi River Commission. He would succeed Maj. Gen. Charles I. McGinnis, who is being reassigned.
Read was born May 17, 1927, in Charlotte, N.C. He has served in the U.S. Army since 1950. He holds a B.S. in military engineering from the U.S. Military Academy and an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois.
Read served in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971. In 1971 and 1972, he was district engineer for the Tulsa District of the Army Engineer Division. From 1972 to 1974, he was Director of Procurement and Production for Army Aviation Systems Command in St. Louis, Mo., and from 1974 to 1976 he was Deputy Commanding General of that command.
Since 1976 Read has been division engineer for the Army Engineer Division, Missouri River. He holds the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters.
Jimmy Carter, Mississippi River Commission Nomination of William E. Read To Be a Member. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241635