Edward Benjamin Cushing was born November 22, 1862, in Houston, TX. After attending A&M College from 1877 to 1879—where he left in the second class with honors—he became a surveyor for Ashbell Smith. He then went to work as an ax man for Southern Pacific Railroads and eventually achieved the post of Superintendent of Maintenance and Way of the Sunset line between New Orleans and El Paso. He established the Alpha Phi ex-students fraternity in 1879 that eventually merged with the Former Students Association. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1899 from A&M College. In 1909, the governor of Louisiana awarded him the rank of colonel for his extensive work with the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Houston Light Guards. Col. Cushing was appointed to the board of A&M College in 1912 and elected president. He was instrumental in ensuring the future of A&M College by guaranteeing the school’s debts and bringing state legislatures to A&M College to prevent closure. He chaired the committees that were responsible for the construction of the Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue and the Y.M.C.A. He attained the rank of Lt. Colonel as a member of Pershing’s staff with the 17th Engineers and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his services in WWI. Upon his death, he bequeathed his collection of engineering texts to A&M College with a request to build an official library; A&M College built the Cushing Memorial Library in 1930.