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W I L L I A M S. L E E
1929–1996
Elected in 1978
“For leadership in the development of large multi–purpose electric power
projects in an economical and environmentally compatible manner.”
BY ROBERTA BOWMAN AND LYNNE HOLMES
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
A T THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA at Charlotte
(UNCC), an original mural commemorates the man for whom
the engineering school is named—William States Lee III.
Because the artist found it impossible to capture his essence in
a single image, she used more than a dozen likenesses to convey
the spirit and energy of his character.
Like the mural, Bill Lee’s life was a composite of many skills
and interests—he was a consummate engineer, a visionary
leader, and a generous giver. Before his untimely death in 1996
at the age of 67, he left indelible impressions on the people
whose lives he touched, on the profession he embraced, on the
industry he served, and on the world he lived in.
The Engineer
Bill was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1929, and you
could say engineering ran in his blood. His grandfather, William
States Lee Sr., had helped found, and was chief engineer of
Southern Power Company. The company, later called Duke
Power and eventually Duke Energy, became one of the world’s
largest and most respected energy companies.
Lee III graduated from Princeton University with a degree
in civil engineering, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, in
1951. He served in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineering Corps during
the Korean War and returned to Charlotte with his bride, Janet,
in 1955.
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124 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Bill joined Duke Power in 1955 as a junior engineer—a choice
inspired more by the chance to work with the company’s
nationally renowned chief engineer, David Nabow, than by a
desire to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. Bill planned to
stay with the company for a few years and then start his own
engineering firm or look for a position in another, more exciting
industry. But what started as a job led to a lifelong passion for
Duke Power and the energy industry.
By 1965, after a series of promotions, Lee had become vice
president of engineering. He was elected to the Board of
Directors in 1968. He was promoted to senior vice president of
engineering and construction in 1971, executive vice president
in 1976, and president and chief operating officer in 1978. In
1982, he became chairman and CEO, and in 1994, when he
retired, he was named Chairman Emeritus.
A registered professional engineer in North Carolina and
South Carolina, Lee was elected to the National Academy of
Engineering in 1978. Throughout his career, he received many
other awards and honors. He was elected a Fellow of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1972 and
was awarded the ASME George Washington Gold Medal also
in 1972, the Outstanding Leadership Award in 1981, and the
James N. Landis Medal in 1991. He was named the Nation’s
Outstanding Engineer by the National Society of Professional
Engineers in 1980; he received the American Nuclear Society
Walter Zinn Award in 1980 and the Henry DeWolf Smyth
Award in 1991. He was named Outstanding Utility CEO of the
Year eight times and CEO of the Decade in 1989 by Financial
World magazine.
The Leader
Bill Lee’s career paralleled an era of intense growth in the
U.S. electric power industry. Duke Power was challenged to
keep pace with the Carolinas’ accelerating economy and the
region’s growing need for electric power. His grandfather,
William States Lee Sr., had acted on the belief that the company
could build its own generation fleet more economically and
efficiently than any outside contractor. Bill Lee continued that
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125
WILLIAM S. LEE
“do-it-yourself” tradition. Throughout his tenure at the
company’s helm, Duke Power was known for excellence in
designing, engineering, building, operating, and maintaining
its own power plants.
In 1962, Bill Lee was named chief engineer for the first
commercial nuclear plant in the Southeast, Parr Nuclear Station
in South Carolina. Under his engineering and executive
leadership, the company brought seven nuclear generating units
on line in the 1970s and 1980s—three at Oconee Nuclear Station
in South Carolina, two at McGuire Nuclear Station in North
Carolina, and two at Catawba Nuclear Station in South
Carolina.
Bill Lee believed passionately in the potential of nuclear
energy to provide electricity and promote peace. By reducing
the world’s dependence on oil-producing nations, he believed,
nuclear energy could reduce the probability of going to war
over oil — while strengthening national economies and
protecting the environment by reducing emissions.
After the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident in 1979, the
industry called on Lee to lead the recovery efforts. Amid
national concerns over the safety of nuclear power and facing
political calls to shut down nuclear plants, Bill Lee offered a
better solution. Instead of closing plants, he argued, the industry
could learn valuable lessons from the TMI experience, an idea
that led to the creation of the Institute of Nuclear Power
Operations (INPO), an industry group dedicated to self-
monitoring performance and improving safety. Lee served as
INPO’s first chairman from 1979 to 1982.
After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, Lee took the INPO
model global. Recognizing that “radiation knows no national
boundaries,” he helped form the World Association of Nuclear
Operators (WANO) to improve the safety of nuclear reactors
around the world. He served as WANO’s president from 1989
until 1991, which helped establish his reputation as a global
ambassador for nuclear safety. Lee became so closely identified
with progress in nuclear safety, efficiency, and reliability that
he was often called “the world’s nuclear engineer.” But, never
one to grow complacent, he often said that “‘laurels wilt fastest
when sat upon.”
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126 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
To employees at Duke Power, his personal style and strong
sense of service and citizenship exemplified Bill Lee’s leadership.
Nearly every employee who worked at Duke Power during the
Lee years has a story to tell. For example, Lee once stopped to
help an employee who was having car trouble in the parking
lot of one of the power plants—and the employee didn’t know
until later that the nice gentleman who helped him get back on
the road was the CEO. Lee made a point of sitting with an
employee’s mother on an airplane to let her know what a fine
job her daughter was doing for Duke Power. He recalled a
casual elevator conversation with a new employee years
later—and asked about each family member by name.
The Giver
Bill Lee also embraced the ethic of community service. He
never joined a board or accepted a leadership position in name
only; he always gave his full energy and attention to the cause
at hand. Like his many professional awards and honors, Lee’s
philanthropic efforts are too many to list. He championed the
arts, chairing the fund-raising campaign for the North Carolina
Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte in 1989–1990.
He served as trustee on a number of hospital foundations,
volunteered for the Boy Scouts, and was an elder in his
church.
Lee was also strongly committed to the economic development
of the Charlotte region and the Carolinas. He chaired the
Charlotte Chamber of Commerce in 1979 and was appointed
by the governor to the North Carolina Economic Development
Board and the North Carolina Energy Policy Council.
He had a strong commitment to educational reform,
particularly in his home state. He turned down a prestigious
board seat at Princeton in favor of a trusteeship at Queens
College, telling his alma mater, “I’m honored, but I’ve got this
little college up the street in my neighborhood that needs me
more.” Lee chaired the Queens College Board of Trustees from
1985 to 1989 and served on the boards of the UNCC Foundation,
North Carolina State University’s Engineering Foundation, and
Johnson C. Smith University Board of Visitors.
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WILLIAM S. LEE
At Duke Power, he established the Power in Education
Program to give employees paid time off to volunteer in schools.
He sparked the creation of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Education
Foundation to raise funds for innovative programs in the local
school system. His commitment to educational excellence led
UNCC to name the college of engineering after him in 1994.
And the day before he died in 1996, he addressed the North
Carolina state legislature, calling for a stronger commitment to
education in the state.
Bill Lee was a man of unending curiosity, creativity, and
commitment. Of all his pursuits, none was more important to
him than his family. He and his wife Janet raised one son, States,
and two daughters, Lisa and Helen. His wife and children
survive him and live in the Charlotte region, along with five
grandchildren: Lisa Lee and Alan Morgan’s children Grace and
Will; and States Lee’s children Madison, States V, and Martin.
During the final year of his life, Lee made the grandchildren
his priority: fly fishing and horseback riding together in
Wyoming; swimming and sailing at Camp Lee, the family
homestead on Lake Norman, just a few miles north of
Charlotte.
“I love to be really active in the challenge of creating
something worthwhile,” Lee once said. “Now that could be
conquering a mountain skiing downhill, growing a garden,
raising money for a charity, or staying on the cutting edge in
the pursuit of excellence at Duke Power.” The thrill of
competition included Lee’s leisure interests as well. His family
and neighbors remember the “Camp Lee Olympics,” which Lee
directed every Fourth of July for his extended clan on the shores
of Lake Norman. Or, as his wife Jan remembers, the dare of an
“even larger garden” every year. Jan recalls that Bill Lee wanted
to “leave the world better than he found it” — and that applied
to his company, his community, and his family:
“A colleague asked me what I’d most like to be remembered
for,” he said on another occasion. “My response was, ‘a person
who helped others achieve more than they could have without
me.’”
Life’s mission accomplished.
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