David Cay Johnston: “today, I join thousands of Americans and other admirers around the world in paying tribute to Bill Lee, retired chairman…”

“today, I join thousands of Americans and other admirers around the world in paying tribute to Bill Lee, retired chairman of Duke Power Co. and a personal friend, who died on July 10, 1996, in New York at age 67. To eulogize William States Lee as Duke's former chairman, while accurate, does not begin to do justice to the scope of Bill's talents, vision, and accomplishments. In a career at Duke that spanned four decades, Bill presided over one of the most successful electric utilities in the Nation. He provided the leadership for the most successful nuclear power program in the Nation. It was his determination to bring safe, clean, and reliable power for North and South Carolina electricity consumers that resulted in the construction of the Oconee, McGuire, and Catawba nuclear powerplants, which have admirable served the people of the region for many years. Bill Lee's achievements do not stop at the bounds of Duke's service territory. He is revered as the driving force behind the national and international organizations that today do so much to ensure the safety of the United States and world nuclear powerplants. It is those contributions, perhaps even more that his contributions at Duke Power, that constitute his true legacy and assure his place in the history for the electric power industry.”