Hall of Fame to Honor Energy Pioneer

Observer Reports

William States Lee, who played a key role in starting the Duke Energy Company has been chosen for induction into the Anderson County Museum’s Hall of Fame.

Lee’s accomplishments will be celebrated Tuesday at 5: 30 p.m. at the museum. The public is invited.

Lee, along with James B. Duke, Lee was an influential member of a powerful regional South Carolina community responsible for a new electric utility industry, the New South textile boom, and the future growth of the Piedmont.

Lee, considered one of the country’s foremost pioneers in hydroelectric energy development, literally changed the industrial geography of these states with his hydro-electric enterprises furnishing energy to a vast network of transmission lines. Much of the industrial advancement in the Carolinas can be credited to his individual efforts.

Lee was born in Lancaster, S. C., January 28, 1872. He received the degree of C.E. from The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, in 1894. He received the honorary degree of doctor of laws from this institution in 1932, and that of doctor of science from Davidson College, N. C., in 1929.

Following graduation, he was obliged to teach 2 years, in return for the free scholarship to the Citadel, which he had won in a competitive examination.

In 1897 he was appointed resident engineer at the Anderson (S. C.) Light and Power Company. In 1898 he became resident engineer of the Columbus (Ga.) Power Company, becoming chief engineer of this company in 1902. He next went with the Catawba Power Company, Charlotte, N. C., being appointed chief engineer in March 1903, and vice-president and chief engineer in October of that year. This company was a subsidiary of the Southern Power Company, and in 1905 he became chief engineer of the latter company. He later received the appointment of vice-president and chief engineer, which position he held for about 15 years. At the time of his death in March of the present year, Lee was vice-president and chief engineer of the Duke Power Company, Charlotte, N. C., and president of W. S. Lee Engineering Corporation of New York and Charlotte.

He held a number of other offices, including president and chief engineer of the Piedmont and Northern Railway Company, vice-president and chief engineer and director of the Wateree Power Company, Western Carolina Power Company, and Catawba Power Company.

In his long association with the late James B. Duke, together they were active in the construction of many power systems and the development of hydroelectric resources in the south. Lee's most notable achievement was the designing and building of the Duke Power Company system, consisting of some 32 hydroelectric stations and seven steam electric stations, with a generating capacity of more than 1,000,000 kva.

He also designed and supervised the building of the Duke-Price Power Company's Isle Maligne station on the Saguenay River, Quebec, Canada. He was consulting engineer for the Alcoa Power Company, and designed the Beauhamois Plant which is now being constructed on the St. Lawrence River, near Montreal; when completed it will probably be the largest hydroelectric plant in the world.

Hall of Fame recipients are nominated by the museum Advisory Committee which is appointed by the County Council. Nominees must be deceased for at least ten years before they are eligible to be submitted.