Kimball, Sumner Increase

Kimball, Sumner Increase, 1834–1923, organizer of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, b. Lebanon, Maine. A lawyer, he became (1871) head of the revenue marine service of the Treasury Dept., and his investigations into shipwrecks along the Atlantic coast led to a reorganization of lifesaving methods. Kimball commanded the Life-Saving Service from its inception in 1878 until it became part of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. He wrote Organization and Methods of the U.S. Life Saving Service (1889) and Joshua James, Life Saver (1909).