Budd graduated from
Yale University with a Bachelor of Science in
Civil Engineering in 1930. Budd joined the
Great Northern Railway on his summers away from Yale in 1925 and 1926. Following graduation, he joined the Great Northern as assistant to the electrical engineer, a position he held from 1930 to 1932. In 1933 he was appointed assistant trainmaster at
Willmar, Minnesota. From 1933 to 1940 he was assistant trainmaster and then
trainmaster at
Sioux City, South Dakota,
Wenatchee, Washington, and
Spokane, Washington. From 1940 to 1942 he served as division superintendent at
Klamath Falls, Oregon, then
Whitefish, Montana. In 1942 Budd was commissioned a major in the
U.S. Army's
Military Railway Service. He served in
Algeria,
Italy,
France and
Germany. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he commanded the 727th Railway Operating Battalion. He was discharged in November 1945. From November 1945, to May 1947, Budd was assistant general manager for Lines East of
Williston, North Dakota, on the Great Northern. In June 1947, he joined the
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad as its president, a position he held until May 1949. In this capacity he was the youngest president of any U.S. Class I railroad. He returned to the Great Northern in May 1949, following the death of Thomas F. Dixon to become the Great Northern's vice-president in charge of operations. He held this position until May 1951, when he was named president, succeeding Francis J. Gavin who had been in office since 1939. John Budd's father,
Ralph Budd, another civil engineer, was president of the Great Northern from 1919 to 1930, and president of the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a company half-owned by the Great Northern in cooperation with the
Northern Pacific Railway, from 1930 until his retirement in 1949. In 1952, Budd was traveling in his private train car that "drifted" past a switch onto the main line. While railroad men attempted to rectify the situation, Budd's train was struck by another traveling in the opposite direction. Again in 1966, his "home on wheels" was attached to the
Empire Builder when he and his wife were involved in the
Great Northern Buelow wreck. He was not hurt either time though two others died in each accident. Budd died on October 25, 1979, at the age of 71. ==Sources==