Dr. Charles Proteus Steinmetz Gravesite

Charles “Proteus” Steinmetz was born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz in Breslau, Province of Silesia, Prussia in 1865 [1]. He attended the University in Breslau where he was about to finish his doctorate, when he was accused of socialist activities. He then emigrated to the U.S. in 1889 and changed his name to sound more American. He chose the middle name “Proteus”, a character from the Odyssey who knew many secrets[4].

Charles became a professor at Union College in Schenectady, where he fostered the development of alternating current that expanded the electric power industry. He was often referred to as “The Wizard of Schenectady”.

Charles was also an avid photographer and a portfolio of his work, and some of the first pictures taken of Schenectady, New York are available through the Schenectady Historical Society. Charles worked with many prominent men during his life including Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse and Albert Einstein.

Charles never married as he was born with a spinal deformity and did not wish to pass on to any offspring. He was close with Joseph LeRoy Hayden and family and eventually adopted Joseph as his son, becoming a grandfather to three children. The Hayden family lived in the same home as Charles [4].

Although he was baptized a Lutheran into the Evangelical Church of Prussia [2], Steinmetz identified as being a lifelong agnostic. He died on October 26, 1923.

Charles gravestone in Vale Cemetery has some interesting features including a symbol of thunderbolts in the middle of an Egyptian winged sun symbol. This could perhaps be in references to his identification with “Proteus of Egypt, the immortal old man of the sea who never lies, who sounds the deep in all its depths, Poseidon’s servant [5] (The Odyssey I. 430ff).”