Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 29/98) - Ted Humphrys grew up watching his father run the electric light plant in Kelliher, Sask. It was a life that sparked his interest in engineering.

After graduating from the University of Manitoba in 1935 with an electrical engineering degree, Humphrys returned home to work at the plant his father owned. And when fire destroyed the operation, Humphrys helped rebuild and run it.

But with the onset of the Second World War, he joined the Inspections Board of UK and Canada.

After the war, he heard about "this power plant being built in the NWT (Snare Rapids)."

The generation of electrical power, like so many other things in the North, is rooted in resources, Humphrys said.

"In 1946, the owners of Giant mine decided they needed power. Government said they would build the plant. The mine built the transmission lines."

When hired by J.M. Wardle in 1948, Humphrys was the commission's third employee after plant superintendent J.H Barwise and plant operator Dunc McPhee.

Capturing the official opening of the Snare plant is a photo taken Oct. 4, 1948. Among those in the picture, part of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre collection, are Humphrys, Wardle, Barwise and McPhee. Also in the photo are Ken Kidder as well as Max Ward. Kidder was involved with the telephone system while Ward flew the group up to the site.

Humphrys said his work with hydro has meant utilizing more than one engineering discipline.

Hydro is a combination of civil and electrical engineering. Using diesel to generate power brings mechanical engineering into the picture, he said.

Humphrys, the commission's first engineer, would go on to become its chief engineer and general manager. Today he lives in Ottawa.

When the crown corporation's activities extended to include the Yukon, the commission was renamed the Northern Canada Power Commission, predecessor of today's NWT Power Corporation.

Since he left the Power Corp. in 1969 to become senior electrical advisor with Energy, Mines and Resources, Humphrys has been, and remains, a technical advisor to the utility.

Last Wednesday, he was named Power Corp. chair emeritus at a ceremony in Hay River. Humphrys, who was based in Ottawa while he worked for the commission, was in the North last week for the Power Corp.'s quarterly meeting.

The latest honor follows a 1993 ceremony renaming the Snare Rapids Hydro Plant the Ted Humphrys Power Plant.