National Academies Press: OpenBook

Memorial Tributes: Volume 22 (2019)

Chapter: GREGORY S. VASSELL

« Previous: MYRON TRIBUS
Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×

This page intentionally left blank.

Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×

Image

Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×

GREGORY S. VASSELL

1921–2016

Elected in 1980

“Contributions in the field of electric energy supply, both as to its technical features and its societal implications.”

BY JAMES J. MARKOWSKY

GREGORY S. VASSELL, who promoted the development of AEP’s extra-high-voltage transmission system, including the 765KV network, now the nation’s largest, died November 3, 2016, at the age of 94 in Dublin, Ohio.

He was born December 24, 1921, in Moscow. In 1930 he and his parents escaped the Soviet Union, and in 1951 he earned an advanced degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany. Shortly thereafter, he emigrated to the United States, where he began his career as an assistant engineer at the American Electric Power Service Corporation (AEP) in New York City. He earned an MBA from New York University in 1954 and became a US citizen in 1957.

At AEP Greg advanced through the engineering levels in the 1950s and 1960s to become assistant vice president in 1968, vice president of system planning in 1973, and senior vice president in 1976, eventually relocating to Ohio. He also served on the AEP board of directors (1973–87). He retired from AEP at the end of 1987 but continued to work as an independent consultant, arbitrator, and mediator until 2001, when he retired a second time, at age 81.

During his career he was responsible for formulating plans for the construction of thousands of miles of high-voltage and

Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×

extra-high-voltage transmission lines as well as the location of many major power plants throughout the Midwestern United States. For his substantial contributions in transmission engineering, AEP named a 765/345/138 kilovolt (KV) “super” station in Sunbury, Ohio, after him.

He published many technical papers and articles in professional journals in the United States and abroad. He also delivered a number of talks and lectures on various aspects of power system planning and operation in general, and on extra-high-voltage transmission planning, generating capacity reserve planning, pumped-storage hydro planning, electric bulk power supply reliability, power plant siting, load forecasting, generating capacity efficiency and reliability, and the structure of the electric utility industry.

In addition, he testified before congressional committees and state legislatures and appeared on innumerable occasions as an expert witness before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC; and its predecessor, the Federal Power Commission), the Securities and Exchange Commission, and state regulatory commissions.

Greg was active in national and international efforts concerning power generation and transmission. His analysis of the cause of the 1965 blackout1 led to his participation in the founding of the East Central Area Reliability Coordination Agreement. He served on the Federal Power Commission Technical Advisory Committee on Transmission (1970); National Power Survey (chair, System Aspects Subcommittee) (1968–70); US delegations to the Soviet Union to study extra-high-voltage transmission facilities (1972) and to study the design, construction, and operation of large electric generating plants (1973), both under the US-USSR Exchange Agreement; FERC Task Force on Power Pooling (1980–81); and Atlantic

___________________

1 Late in the afternoon of November 9, 1965, a design failure in a protective setting at a single power station triggered a cascade effect that disrupted the electricity supply for more than 30 million people over 80,000 square miles in Ontario, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The outage lasted 13 hours in some places.

Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×
Page 355
Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×
Page 356
Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×
Page 357
Suggested Citation:"GREGORY S. VASSELL." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
×
Page 358
Next: JAN A. VELTROP »
Memorial Tributes: Volume 22 Get This Book
×
Buy Hardback | $150.00 Buy Ebook | $119.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

This is the 22nd Volume in the series Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and foreign associates. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and foreign associates, the Academy carries out the responsibilities for which it was established in 1964.

Under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering was formed as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. Members are elected on the basis of significant contributions to engineering theory and practice and to the literature of engineering or on the basis of demonstrated unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology. The National Academies share a responsibility to advise the federal government on matters of science and technology. The expertise and credibility that the National Academy of Engineering brings to that task stem directly from the abilities, interests, and achievements of our members and foreign associates, our colleagues and friends, whose special gifts we remember in this book.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!