Chapter One

 

Being There

An Autobiographical Account of My Life and Times at Glasgow EPB

William J. Ray

 

It was certainly not hard to see that my time at Glasgow EPB might come to a halt suddenly, and now the time appears to be at hand. I agreed to a settlement with the EPB that will have me stepping down from my role as Superintendent, and assuming a temporary role of Advisor/Consultant, effective March 1. I will retire completely from Glasgow EPB by the end of summer 2021.

Since I’ve outlasted nearly everyone that has memories of the last 40 years of the 60-year history of Glasgow EPB, it strikes me that, “Who tells your story?” is a legitimate concern, so I’m going to record it for posterity. But there is more to what happened in my life than just a series of events and people. The culmination of the people and events of my career produced a glimpse into what is possible. This autobiographical essay is published in the hope that others can grasp what we glimpsed, and, hopefully, use it as a basis to carry on the voyage of discovery.

One might say that I have been in the electric utility business since my birth in 1954. My Dad worked for Farmers RECC when I was born, and I studied him intently, so I could someday drive a car with a two-way radio in it, with a big whip antenna. Although I studied my Dad in my youth, my real experience in the utility business started on May 12, 1975. That was the day I walked into Bowling Green Electric Plant Board (it became BGMU a few years later) to take a job as Draftsman, while I was still attending WKU and majoring in Civil Engineering. That was over 45 years ago.

The combination of the classes I was taking at WKU, and the opportunities to constantly pester experienced staff at BGMU for answers, really worked well for my understanding of how the electric grid works. While I continued to progress slowly at WKU, my real education in the mid-70’s came from my mentors: Gene Laughlin, Jim Hoagland, Gary Stallons, and B.H. Kissler. I only hope they knew how much their teaching meant to me, because it meant everything to my career. To this day, whether it is in the throes of a big power outage, a daunting personnel decision, or some other big problem that I need help with, I mentally call out to them.

Things were going great for me and BGMU back then. Mary and I had a son, Bradley, in 1978, shortly after we bought our first home. But then things at BGMU went sour. Lest you think that the rise of devious and misinformed politicians is something invented in Glasgow, let me assure you that, for me, it was first seen in Bowling Green. In 1982 a group of newly elected locals, and a particularly hate-filled Mayor, formed a junta that became determined to destroy BGMU – beginning with the firing of the CEO, Henry Carlisle. As the months rolled by after the junta took power, Henry Carlisle was fired, and each of the brilliant instructors mentioned above, one-by-one, left BGMU for retirement or better jobs, which did not include working for ham-fisted hacks appointed by confused politicians, bereft of ethics. That left me, at 27 years old, effectively in charge of designing and operating Bowling Green’s power grid. 

Meanwhile, back in Glasgow, titans of the community held office, and populated the boards of essential services, like Glasgow EPB. William Bryant, Robert A. Lessenberry, Norma Redford, Don Doty, and Jack Goodman, oblivious to the insanity gripping BGMU, were making plans to acquire licenses to convert Corps of Engineers dams in the region, to provide clean and efficient hydroelectric power for Glasgow. Into that vast void between the destructive thinking in Bowling Green, and the thoughtful wisdom which existed in Glasgow politics, serendipity began to flourish. For me, that manifested itself in my seeing an advertisement for a new Superintendent at Glasgow EPB. In Bowling Green, it seemed clear that everyone who knew anything about the grid, was departing -- taking their expertise with them and leaving a bleak future for BGMU. In Glasgow, I saw my parents, my in-laws, and the wonderful community that Mary and I both still called “home.” By November 1983, I became that new Superintendent, the one who got to pick up those hydroelectric power licenses and try to make viable projects out of them. I also got to leave the divisive politics of Bowling Green behind. Everything about this move was a win!