Addison Frankland Wilber (1907-2005) was born in Boyne City, Michigan. After a hard childhood, Wilber entered Illinois College in 1924 and then transferred to Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) in 1927. He was on the wrestling team, a member of the Ulyssian House (later Theta Kappa Nu) fraternity, and played the saxophone at dances with a number of bands. In September 1930, after graduating from MSC with a B.S. in civil engineering, Wilber went to Denver, Colorado to work on hydroelectric projects with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. One of the projects was the Boulder (Hoover) Dam.

In 1942, he was called to active duty in the U.S. Army where he served as a captain. Following a short illness, Wilber was released from the army, and beginning in 1944, worked on a number of civil engineering projects across the United States, including the Kortes Dam and Power Plant in Wyoming, the Iroquois Dam (part of the St. Lawrence River Power Project), the Niagara Power Project in New York, and the Oroville Dam in California. In 1966, he was named Head of the Section of Inspections at the Federal Power Commission in Washington, D.C., and held this position until his retirement in 1968. Wilber died in 2005.