Wilfred F. Langelier was born in 1886 in Nashua, New Hampshire. He earned a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1909 from New Hampshire College (now University of New Hampshire) at Durham. From 1909 to 1916 he worked for the Illinois State Water Survey,and also earned a M.S. degree in chemical engineering in 1911 from the University of Illinois. In 1916, Langelier accepted an assistant professorship in Sanitary Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Charles Gilman Hydewas chiefly responsible for bringing in Langelier, a chemist by training, to teach water chemistry in the Department of Civil Engineering. Langelier remained at Berkeley until his retirement in 1955.

Langelier also served as a consulting sanitary engineer for the East Bay Water Company until 1928 when the company was taken over by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and is responsible for developing the Langelier Saturation Index, used to determine how corrosive water might be to pipes and plumbing.

Wilfred Langelier died September 13, 1981 at his home in Berkeley, California.

Additional biographical information can by obtained from: Teaching, Research, and Consultation in Water Purification and Sewage Treatment, University of California at Berkeley, 1916-1955, with an introduction by Erman Pearson. An oral history conducted in 1970 by Malca Chall, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1982.