David Eli Lilienthal

Born in Morton, Illinois in 1899, Lilienthal attended DePauw University as an undergraduate and then Harvard Law School. At Harvard, Lilienthal gained the acquaintance of Felix Frankfurter who later recommended him to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Working under Chairman Arthur Morgan, Lilienthal formulated power policy and handled public relations for the TVA. Lilienthal did not feel as strongly as Morgan about the Authority as an example of social planning. Morgan had wanted to maintain some cooperation with the utilities they were competing with, but Lilienthal instead staged a legal offensive against them. He advocated the sale of TVA power at a lower price than their competitors. Lilienthal waged a legal war against president Wendell Willkie of the Commonwealth and Southern Corporation, eventually settling it when the TVA purchased many of the Commonwealth holdings. In 1941, Roosevelt named Lilienthal as chairman of the TVA. At this time, Lilienthal strategically shifted the TVA to the wartime economy by supplying power to the atomic energy station at Oak Ridge Tennessee, making it the largest power production facility in the nation. In 1946, President Truman named Lilienthal chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Source:

McCraw, Thomas K. TVA and the Power Fight, 1933-1939. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1971.