John Jenkins Wilmore (1864-1943), a native of Indiana, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 1888 and began a fifty-five year career at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) as an instructor in the department of Mechanic Arts. He earned the professional degree of Mechanical Engineer in 1891, also from Purdue. Wilmore served as the Dean of the Engineering Department at API from 1907 until 1943. He also served on a three-person committee which administered the college in lieu of a president from 1932 to 1935, which resulted in the Board of Trustees conferring upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. During his career, Wilmore saw enrollment in engineering grow from about twenty students to around nine hundred. The Wilmore Engineering Laboratories building on the campus of Auburn University was dedicated in 1952 and underwent renovations in 2001.