William Carl Ackermann was a “ professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. It was during his years in Illinois that Professor Ackermann made his most valuable contributions to the field of water resources.
In 1963 he accepted a one-year special assignment on the While House staff in Washington, D.C. as technical assistant in the Office of Science and Technology. Executive Office of the President, where he chaired the Committee on Water Resources Research. He strongly advocated the establishment of water resources institutes in fifty states, and this was enacted by Congress in 1964. He continued to serve the Executive Office of the President in various capacities from 1964 to 1984, and was vice-chairman of the Acid Rain Peer Review Panel. He was proud of his service in the White House and was seldom seen without the PT 109 tie clip given to him by President Kennedy.” (from William C. Ackerman 1913 – 1988, William J. Hall, W. Hall C. Maxwell, and Glenn E. Stout, submitted by William J. Hall, p. 4, https://www.nap.edu/read/1760/chapter/2#4)