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THEODORE J
1913-1986
. NAGEL
BY JOHN E. DOLAN
THEODORE J. NAGEL, an internationally recognized author-
ity on the planning, operation, anct reliability of electric
power systems, ctiect January 14, 1986, in Tucson, Arizona,
after an extenclec! illness. He was seventy-two.
At the time of his retirement in 1982, Nage! tract spent
forty-three years with the American Electric Power (AEP)
Service Corporation, rising through the company's ranks
from assistant engineer to senior executive vice-presicient
ant! assistant to the chairman. He playect a large role in mak-
ing the seven-state American Electric Power System what it is
today a major force anct leader in this nation's electric util-
· ~
ty 1nc ~ustry.
In his forty-three years with AEP as an engineer, system
planner, anct executive, seventeen were spent as the engi-
neering executive responsible for the clevelopment of future
planning programs. Toclay, that system, with its 22.S million
kilowatts of generating capacity anct more than 2 1,700 miles
of high-voltage transmission lines, is his legacy.
Tect was born on December 20, 1913, in Ancles, New York.
He receiver! his B.A. in 1936, his B.S. in electrical engineer-
ing in 1937, anct his M.S. in electrical engineering in 1938,
all from Columbia University.
He was first employect by the AEP Service Corporation In
1939 as an assistant engineer. After four years of service with
273
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274
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
the U.S. Navy during World War IT, he returned as a senior
engineer in 1946. He was promoted to head of the System
Planning and Engineering Section of the former System
Planning and Operation Department in 1954, rising to head
of the newly formed System Planning and Analytical Divi-
sion in 1959 ant! to cleputy chief engineer and chief planning
engineer in 1966. He was named vice-president of system
planning in 1967, senior vice-president of system planning
in 1973, executive vice-president of system planning in 1974,
and senior executive vice-presiclent ant! assistant to the chair-
man in 1976. He was also a director of the AEP Service Cor-
poration and of two AEP System operating companies-—Ap-
palachian Power Company and Wheeling Electric Company.
Nage! joined the U.S. Navy in 1942 as an ensign, served
mainly in the European theater, and was discharged as a lieu-
tenant commander in ~ 946. During his service in Europe, he
met ant] later married his wife, Dee. They became the par-
ents of a son, Philip, and a daughter, Pamela.
Together with Nagel's impressive work history, his service
on various industry and government technical and advisory
committees established his credentials as an expert on power
supply planning anc! reliability. When the Great Blackout of
1965 struck the Northeast, Nage! was not in his New York
office but at an AEP System management meeting in Roa-
noke, Virginia, approximately four hundred miles away. The
blackout disrupted electrical service to thirty million custom-
ers over an eighty-thousanct-square-mile area.
Nage! was summoned to Washington by Joseph P. Swicller,
chairman of the Federal Power Commission. His initial as-
signment was to assist in the commission's inquiry into the
blackout, which was to be conducted by its Advisory Com-
mittee on Reliability of Electric Bulk Power Supply, and
eventually to prepare its report to the president. The procI-
uct of his research while a member of this committee was
released as Volume 2 of Prevention of Power Failures. The (loc-
ument ultimately lect to the industry's reliability coordination
effort in both the United States and Canacia. Later, when a
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THEODORE ]. NAGEL
275
similar but less severe failure hit the Pennsylvania-New
Jersey-Marylan(1 area, Bagel was called upon again and
again he responclec! effectively.
Owing to his solid reputation in advisory committee work,
Nage! was invited to participate in all three of the National
Power Surveys concluctect by the Fecleral Power Commission.
During the first, he server! as a member of the Transmission
and Interconnection Special Technical Committee; for the
second, he was a member of the East Central Regional Ad-
visory Committee; in the third, he participated as a member
of the Energy Distribution Research Task Force.
Nage! was also instrumental in the formation of the East
Central Area Reliability Coordination Agreement Group
(ECAR), the first of nine such regional groups to be orga-
nized across the country. He served as chairman of its Coor-
ctinating Review Committee from 1970 to 1976. In acIdition,
he was chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee of the
North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) for two
years. The council's membership is composed of all nine re-
gional groups. Nagel was also the NERC Engineering Com-
mittee's representative on foreign activities.
In addition, he was a member of the Conference Interna-
tionale des Grancls Reseaux Electriques a Haute Tension, the
international organization clevoted to the planning, clevel-
opment, anct operation of large high-voltage electric systems.
In 1982 he was named international chairman of its System
Planning and Development Committee.
Bagel was elected a member of the National Academy of
Engineering in 1973 and server! on its Committee on Power
Plant Siting. A longtime member of the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (lEEE), he was elected a life fellow
of that body in 1979. IEEE's Power Engineering Society hon-
orec! Nage! and his former AEP colleague Howard C. Barnes
by presenting them with its William M. Habirshaw Award in
1979. This award, which is given annually in recognition of
"outstanding contributions to the field of electrical transmis-
sion and distribution," was presenter! to Nage! because of his
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
work in the planning and Barnes' work in the engineer-
ing—of the nation's first 765,000-volt transmission system.
The network was conceived in the 1960s during research
work conducted by AEP at its extra-high-voltage transmis-
sion laboratory in Apple Grove, West Virginia. Construction
of the first sixty-six-mile section of this 765,000-volt system
was begun in 1967, and service began in 1969. The final
ninety-six-mile link in the network was not placed in opera-
tion, however, until September 1986. This addition increased
the system's total length to 2,022 circuit miles.
Nage! was a member of three professional honorary fra-
ternities: Tau Beta Pi (engineering), Eta Kappa Nu (electrical
engineering), and Sigma Xi (science research). He was the
author or coauthor of more than twenty professional papers.
A final honor was bestowed on Nage! at the time of his
retirement: the AEP System named its newest extra-high-
voltage transmission station for him- the Nage! Station near
Kingsport, Tennessee.
Ted Nagel was a man of substance, character, and intellect.
He was a devotee! husband, a good father, and, in his work,
a dedicated engineer. Perhaps the most appropriate tribute
to this quiet, soft-spoken man are the words on the bronze
plaque that stands in the Nage! Station yard in the hills of
northeastern Tennessee: "Theodore J. Nagel, distinguished
engineer and planner who devoted 43 years to the American
Electric Power System."
Ted, you planned it all very well.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
service corporation
