Eugene Starr was born in 1901 in Falls City, Oregon. After graduating from Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) with a B.S. in engineering in 1923, he received his E.E. in 1938. He taught electrical engineering at Oregon State from 1927 until 1954. In 1954 he left the university to become chief engineer for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in Portland, Oregon. From 1962 until his death, Starr served as a full-time senior consultant to all BPA administrators and chief engineers. He led the technical development of one of the world's outstanding power transmission organizations, the BPA, during the most important years of its techological development. He was a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and in 1965 he received the U.S. Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award with Gold Medal. He was named Engineer of the Year by the Professional Engineers of Oregon and was the recipient of IEEE's William M. Harbirshaw award in 1968 and the Lamme Medal in 1980. Starr published more than forty professional and technical articles in the field of high voltage dielectric and environmental phenomena, conventional and nuclear power generation and power system reliability. He died on February 5, 1988.
From the description of Eugene Starr papers, 1925-1980. (Eugene Public Library). WorldCat record id: 50626388
Dr. Eugene Starr enjoyed a widespread reputation as a distinguished scientist, brilliant engineer, and a dedicated public servant. He achieved both national and international recognition for his attainments in the fields of electrical engineering and nuclear physics, and was a pioneer in many areas of high-voltage transmission science, including the development of series and shunt capacitor applications and tests, generator characteristics, circuit breaker advances, and high-voltage transformer and cable problems.
A 1923 graduate of Oregon State University, Starr returned to teach Electrical Engineering from 1927 to 1954. From 1939 to 1954 he also served as consultant to the Bonneville Power Administration, and was its Chief Engineer from 1954 to 1961. In that position he demonstrated outstanding managerial ability and leadership during an era of rapid expansion and technological change. For his professional competence, administrative excellence and dedicated public service, Starr was granted the Department of the Interior's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1958.
From the beginning of the Government's program with nuclear fission, Dr. Starr demonstrated a keen professional interest in the field. During World War II he served as consultant to the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development as an official investigator, coordinator and supervisor of important defense projects. In 1946 he was a Civilian Scientific Observer at the Bikini atom bomb tests. Subsequently Mr. Starr was heavily involved in applying nuclear concepts to the generation of electric energy and to correlating such developments with the requirements of the Federal power system in the Pacific Northwest. Beginning in 1961 he served the Bonneville Power Administration as Consulting Engineer specializing in extra-high-voltage AC- DC transmission and in nuclear power development. He later won several prizes for his research papers in the field of high-voltage engineering and aircraft radio coordination. In 1965 he was named Engineer of the Year for Oregon.
1901
Eugene Carl Starr is born on August 6 in Falls City,
Oregon, where his family farms potatoes.
As a boy Starr
works as a logger and in lumber mills, while also developing a life-long
passion for hunting.
1915
Starr successfully builds a small wireless telegraphy set out of
discarded batteries and electrical equipment given to him by acquaintances
at the Falls City telephone and electric company.
1923
Starr graduates with high honors from Oregon
Agricultural College, where he completes his Bachelor of Science degree in
Electrical Engineering. As a college student, Starr also distinguishes
himself as an expert marksman - he graduates as the College's rifle and
pistol champion.
Immediately following the completion of
his undergraduate studies, Starr enrolls in the General Electric Test
Course.
1924
Starr completes the General Electric Test Course and is hired as a
research engineer in the General Electric High-Voltage Test Laboratory.
His supervisor is Frank W. Peek.
1927
At age 26, Starr leaves General Electric for a position as
instructor of electrical engineering at Oregon Agricultural
College.
1931
Starr is awarded the American Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers National Best Paper Prize in Theory and Research.
He'll earn the award a second time in 1941.
1938
Starr completes a professional degree in Electrical Engineering
from what is now known as Oregon State College.
1939
Twelve years after his hiring as an instructor, Starr is
promoted to the rank of full professor by Oregon State College.
Starr is hired as a consultant by the Bonneville Power
Administration and tasked with using a high-voltage, direct-current power
line to transmit surplus electricity from the Pacific Northwest to the
city of Chicago. A paper that results from this work, "Series Capacitors
for Transmission Circuits," (1942) proves to be hugely influential and
leads to technologies that allow for the transmission of electric power
over distances some four-times longer than had previously been the case.
Starr will later apply these principles in overseeing the construction of
a high-voltage power line stretching over nine-hundred miles from The
Dalles, Oregon to Los Angeles, California.
1941
Starr is elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers. He is also honored for his research on
weather-related static electricity interference as it pertained to radio
communications in aircraft.
On October 19, while hunting
with a group on Steens Mountain in Southeast Oregon, Starr is indirectly
struck by lightning. In recounting the event, he writes "I feel
particularly fortunate in having escaped a direct stroke, or a critically
severe induced stroke. However, from a professional angle, now that the
experience is over, I should regret having missed it."
1942
As a result of his aircraft studies, Starr is enlisted by the
Manhattan Project to solve the problem of static electricity build-up in
uranium-producing cyclotrons. During the war years, Starr also consults
for the United States Office of Scientific Research and
Development.
1946
Beginning in June, Starr serves as a Civilian Scientific Observer
at the first atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll. In later years
he continues this line of consultation with the Reactor Development
Division of the Atomic Energy Commission.
1950
On September 11, Starr marries Oma Mae Herald of Pittsburg,
Kansas.
1953
The American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
honors Starr and E. J. Harrington's paper "Shunt Capacitors in Large
Transmission Networks" with their Northwest District first prize.
1954
Starr retires from Oregon State College in favor of a position as
Chief Engineer of the Bonneville Power Administration. During his seven
years as Chief Engineer, Starr helps develop the Pacific Northwest-Pacific
Southwest Intertie and argues staunchly in support of nuclear power as a
means for producing electricity.
1957
Starr is selected to attend the International World Power
Conference in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, representing the United States as part
of its official delegation.
1958
The United States Department of the Interior bestows upon Starr its
highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.
1959
For five weeks Starr serves as Consultant to the United Nations on
assignment in India, where he reviews a power research grant request
issued by the Indian government.
1960
In June Starr travels to Paris to attend a convention of
the International Conference on Large High-Voltage Electric Systems (C. I.
G. R. E.). His paper "Power Circuit Breaker Testing in the Field,"
co-authored with E. J. Harrington, is one of eight allotted U.S. papers
presented at the event. In later years, Starr will serve C. I. G. R. E. in
a number of capacities.
While in Europe, Starr inspects
power plants in six countries, including the Hinkley Point nuclear power
plant then under construction in England.
1961
Starr retires from the position of Chief Engineer, but continues on
with the B. P. A. as Consulting Engineer for the remainder of his life. In
this capacity he conducts a large volume of research on nuclear energy and
on high-voltage AC and DC transmission.
1965
The state of Oregon names Starr Engineer of the Year.
1968
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers honors Starr
with its William M. Habirshaw Award "for outstanding contributions to the
development of more economical and reliable a-c and d-c
transmission."
1976
Oregon State University honors Starr with its highest decoration,
the Distinguished Service Award.
1977
The National Academy of Engineering inducts Starr as a
member.
1980
Starr is awarded the Benjamin Garver Lamme Medal by the I. E. E. E.
for "outstanding contributions in the field of long-distance high-voltage
electric power transmission systems." He is the first B. P. A. employee to
receive the award.
1987
Oma Mae Starr dies at the age of 70.
1988
On February 5, at the age of 86, Starr succumbs to a short illness
at his home in Portland, Oregon. One obituary author writes that Starr
"pioneered in many fields of electrical engineering including the research
and development of shunt capacitor applications, field testing, generator
characteristics, circuit breaker advances, high-voltage transformer and
cable problems, insulation coordination, and the application of nuclear
energy to power generation and transmission networks." Over the course of
his career, Starr published more than forty papers.
From the guide to the Eugene Starr Papers, 1911-1988, (Oregon State University The Valley Library, Special Collections)