DWP ORAL HISTORIES - GENERAL

The following is a collection of oral histories covering the growth and development of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) as seen by the participants – its employees.  The collection preserves the stories of distinctive and diverse individuals whose historical experiences have shaped the collective memory of DWP.

It is our belief that the interviews are not only an important source of DWP history but are useful to today's management in providing context to current issues.

General Interviews

◆ Mildred Shore – GROWING UP IN THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY - Mrs. Shore talks about her father, Robert Eckert, who worked for the Department or for a subcontractor to the Department, in the early part of the 1900s, and who was a spectator at the aqueduct ceremony that ushered in the Owens River water to San Fernando Valley in 1913.

◆ Mary Jean (Pearson) Piercy – Retired June 30, 1985 as a Senior Clerk Typist in the Commercial Division in Independence.

◆ Thomas Eugene “Gene” Barrows – Retired January 31, 1964 as Electrical Plant Superintendent, Independence, California.

◆ Alice Francisca Muller - Retired December 1, 1976 as Chief Clerk, Power Design and Construction Division - "The All Around Chief Clerk"

◆ Louise E. Hoffmire - Retired on September 1, 1959 as a Senior Telephone Operator – “The DWP Telephone Room”

◆ Ernest Takuichi Fukuda - Retired on September 30, 1967 as a Civil Engineering Associate – “The First Japanese American at DWP”

◆ Thomas Craig Poole – Retired December 1, 1988 as a Senior Storekeeper – “Two Generations Working in the Owens Valley”

◆ Warner Howard Ramsey – Retired December 1976 as General Superintendent Transmission, Trouble and Street Light.

◆ William Charles Poe, III – Retired April 1, 1973 - First superintendent at Haynes Steam Generating station, 1961.

◆ William Russell Ree - Water Quality – Senior Engineer and Acting Division Head

◆ Patrick D. Doherty - Retired July 1, 1989, Western Water District Superintendent – “Working for the DWP”

◆ Lloyd S. Phillips - Retired November 30, 1979 as Water Dispatcher – “Working in the DWP Aqueduct Division”

◆ Kenneth Everett Young – Retired in 1974 – “Working in the DWP Electric Plant” – (PP1 & PP2)

◆ David E. Babb – Retired Range and Wildlife Management Specialist

◆ Haynes Steam Generating Station Group Interview:
William Charles Poe, III – Retired 1973 as First Superintendent at Haynes Steam Generating Station
Monty B. Moore – Retired 1979 as Superintendent of Haynes Steam Generating Station
Kenneth L. Bosworth – Superintendent of Haynes Generating Station (1979 – Interview Date 1990).

◆ Sanitary Engineering Group Interview:
William Ree – Retired 1980 as Senior Sanitary Engineer (Acting Division Head)
Lester Louden – Retired 1978
George Thomas
Milton Zim – Retired 1973
Albert Forthal – Retired 1978