There’s something about the number ninety-nine that makes it particularly noteworthy in the minds of many people.
Perhaps because it is associated with some of the most gifted professional athletes—such as Wayne Gretzky (hockey), George Mikan (basketball), JJ Watt and Warren Sapp (football), and Manny Ramirez and Aaron Judge (baseball).
Perhaps because Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) was Maxwell Smart’s partner in the sitcom “Get Smart.”
But for CCJ subscribers, it was generator guru Clyde Maughan’s 99th birthday (July 5). Although he officially retired from professional work at age 95, The Clyde’s continuing guidance is revered by the editors.
In our view, he certainly deserves GOAT recognition from the electric power industry for sharing unselfishly his extensive generator experiences acquired over more than 70 years of work at General Electric’s Schenectady works and as a technical consultant.
What Maughan means to the industry is, perhaps, best described by Tom Freeman, a GE Vernova executive well known to power generators who recently “retired” and formed a consultancy.
Freeman told the editors, who agreed, that every so often you’re fortunate to meet someone you know to be an industry giant. Freeman said, “I think the esteem that the industry holds for Clyde can be summed up by something I witnessed at the first annual meeting of the Generator Users Group (GUG) in 2015.
“In a room full of, dare I say, seasoned engineers wearing progressive lenses and sporting a fair amount of gray hair, I watched various people stand when Clyde entered the room, go silent when he spoke, and generally seek his counsel throughout the conference. Maybe I’m simply old enough to appreciate that, but I would say that it is the high honor that has been well deserved through decades of engineering excellence.”
The first GUG conference, held in NV Energy’s Beltway Complex and Conference Center, welcomed 70 participants and featured 20 presentations. The speakers, including four IEEE Fellows and one ASME Fellow, each was expert in his field, several having worldwide reputations.
Maughan, the force behind the formation of the GUG, was recognized by the user group’s chairman, Kent Smith, for a “lifetime of sharing selflessly his extensive knowledge in the design, operation, and maintenance of electric generators.” Smith was a Duke Energy employee at the time with fleetwide generator responsibilities. Today he is an independent generator consultant.
Interestingly, two members of the GUG’s original steering committee—Joe Riebau, senior manager of electrical engineering and NERC for Constellation Power, and Jagadeesh (JD) Srirama, a senior electrical engineer at NV Energy—continue on the committee. Visit with them and other colleagues in the generator community by registering for the 11th Annual GUG Conference, August 25-28, in Washington, DC (details at www.powerusers.org).
Where life began. Clyde was born into a large, self-sufficient Idaho farm family at the mercy of weather, insects, and anything else that could impede the growing of food necessary to sustain life. His first association with the “power industry” came as the family member responsible for fueling the small gasoline engine/generator used to charge the batteries supplying power to the farm’s microgrid. These were the long-ago days before the Rural Electrification Administration provided the wherewithal to deliver power by wire direct from federal dams in the state.
Maughan spent the first 36 years of his career after graduation from the Univ of Idaho (BSEE, 1950) at GE as an engineer and manager in generator and turbine engineering design/service/development/manufacturing and a variety of other positions. He launched Maughan Engineering Consultants after retiring from the OEM.
Along the way to his second retirement, The Clyde was directly involved in 250 or so repair projects on generators from 2 to 1400 MW supplied by virtually all of the world’s major manufacturers. This work included several dozen root-cause investigations of complex failures on stator and field components.
Plus, Maughan served on several IEEE and IEC committees and working groups; managed a couple of major projects for EPRI; wrote or coauthored more than two-score major technical papers; published a handbook of more than 200 pages on generator repair and conducted nearly three dozen seminars (total of more than 1000 attendees) worldwide based on that work; and still had time to get an MS in Mechanical Engineering. Plus, he earned his Professional Engineer’s certification (since retired voluntarily) and was named an IEEE Fellow.
The Clyde’s greatest achievement might well be his handbook, “Maintenance of turbine-driven generators” first published in 1997 and updated several times since. Access this valuable treatise at no cost by visiting www.ccj-online.com/maughan-book. CCJ
