George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. was born in 1859 and died in 1896. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the class of 1881 with a degree in Civil Engineering. After that, he began a career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders.

He is most well known for inventing the Ferris Wheel, constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition in an attempt to create something as impressive as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

George W.G. Ferris is a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame, inducted in September, 1998.