Frank W. Skinner graduated from Cornell with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1879. After gaining practical experience in a bridge shop in Pittsburgh, he worked as foreman and superintendent in charge of the reconstruction of the railroad suspension bridge across the Niagara River. He was one of the engineers on the cantilever bridge across St. John's River in New Brunswick. He then became resident engineer at the Lachine Bridge Works and bridge engineer for the St. Paul & Northern Pacific Railroad. He was also one of the consulting engineers for the George Washington Bridge in New York. From 1888 to 1914, he edited the Engineering Record, and in 1916, he founded Contracting. He wrote several textbooks and numerous articles. He served as a non-resident lecturer at Cornell in 1898 and lectured extensively at Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Wisconsin, McGill, Brown, and other universities.