His full name, including the two middle initials he displayed throughout his life, derived from his father's Civil War service.

Wounded in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Eugene Alderman was given up for dead until Captain George Perkins Bissell of the 25th Connecticut Infantry noticed his movement.

Picking up the soldier and strapping him to his horse, he rode him to the nearest hospital, and in a feeling of indebtedness, the elder Alderman chose to name his first-born son after the man who saved him.

He and his firm would design buildings in a number of architectural styles, including but not limited to, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Neoclassical, Richardsonian Romanesque, Victorian, and a few later examples of Art Deco.

He was a director of the Hadley Falls Trust Company, a trustee of the People's Savings Bank, and a member of the finance committee.