Summers then received private instruction in mathematics, physics and engineering before taking a job as an assistant electrician with the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1889.

This ranged from the chemical processes and raw materials used to produce high explosives to the mechanical engineering of guns.

[3][6] He supervised both the explosives and the chemicals work of the Board until March F. Chase and Charles H. MacDowell arrived in Washington, D.C. to assume those two respective responsibilities.

[5][11] On April 4, 1899, Summers married Chicago journalist Eve Hadday Brodlique in London, Ontario.

[1][12] Their second child, Llewelyn Leland Brodlique Summers (25 September 1903 – 21 March 1948),[1][13] married Margaret Grace Shotwell, the daughter of Columbia University history professor James T.

[5] Among those who attended his funeral service were Bernard Baruch, Hamlin Garland, Alexander Legge and Lorado Taft.