Collection is open for research.
Charles Franklin Luce was born in Platteville, Wisconsin, in 1917. In 1941, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. In 1942, he graduated from Yale law school and went on to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. In 1942, he and Helen Oden were married; they later had four children. In 1944, he took a job with the Bonneville Power Administration and in 1961, he was named by President John F. Kennedy as Bonneville Power Administrator. He briefly served as undersecretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1966. From 1967 to 1982, he served as chair and chief executive of Consolidated Edison in New York. Helen Luce died in 2001, and he later married Margaret Richmond. He died in 2008.
Oral history interview with Charles F. Luce, by Gene Tolefson, SR 1571, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Oral history interview with Charles F. Luce, by Michael O'Rourke, SR 1570, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Charles F. Luce was conducted by Gene Tolefson from September 7 to November 20, 1984. The interview was conducted in two sessions.
In the first interview session, conducted on September 7, 1984, Luce briefly discusses his early life in Platteville, Wisconsin, his college experience at Yale law school, and clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He talks about his desire to move to the Pacific Northwest and about lobbying for a job with the U.S. Interior Department, which led to his career at the Bonneville Power Administration beginning in 1944. He discusses his role as legal counsel for the BPA, initiatives relating to public utility districts, and helping PUDs get set up. He talks about his appointment as Bonneville Power Administrator in 1961 and describes his new duties. He discusses controversies surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Power Plant; forming treaties with Californian and Canadian power companies; and building dams. He talks about the benefits and drawbacks of hydroelectric power, and his involvement in the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) project.
Between the two sessions is an incomplete segment from a panel discussion regarding the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada. The discussion, held circa 1990, is moderated by Gordon Gulp, with an introductory speech by Charles F. Luce.
In the second interview session, conducted on November 20, 1984, Luce discusses the Columbia River Treaty, including his own role as a negotiator, the terms of the treaty, and other members of the negotiating team. He talks about attempts to sell surplus power to California and Idaho, opposition to the Columbia River Treaty, and the long term benefits of the treaty. He closes the interview by talking about the early plans for Bonneville that he helped put together when he first began working at BPA in 1944.
Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA,