sentences:  In 1918 he was appointed by Mayor John Francis Hylan to head the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity and was continued in the post by Mayor Jimmy Walker in 1926.Heart disease ended his life on January 3, 1928, at his home in 57 East 19th Street in Manhattan, New York City, 72 years old, while he was the acting Commissioner of Water Supply.The day before, he had been charged by the Republican County Committee to have abandoned work on a municipal water supply for the Rockaways and had granted a private corporation the right to tap city mains and to sell the city's own water back to residents at "tremendous prices".