William Graham Claytor (December 20, 1886 – February 28, 1971), of

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It lies in Southwest Virginia, along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanok ...

, was an American engineer and the vice president of

Appalachian Power Company Appalachian may refer to: * Appalachian Mountains, a major mountain range in eastern United States and Canada * Appalachian Trail, a hiking trail in the eastern United States * The people of Appalachia and their culture ** Appalachian Americans, e ...

, an electric utility service. He is best remembered for supervising the construction of the Claytor Dam and creation of a 4,500 acre (18 km²), 21 mile (34 km) long

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

on the New River in Pulaski County, a

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

project completed in 1939. The resultant

Claytor Lake Claytor Lake in Pulaski County, Virginia, is a , reservoir on the New River, created for an Appalachian Power Company (APC) hydroelectric project. It is named for William Graham Claytor, Sr. (1886–1971) of Roanoke, Virginia, a vice presiden ...

and surrounding

Claytor Lake State Park Claytor Lake State Park is a state park in Pulaski County, Virginia, in the in the United States. The park is located on Claytor Lake, a , reservoir on the New River formed by Claytor Dam, which is used to generate hydroelectric power by t ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

are named for him. Claytor married Gertrude Harris Boatwright, a lyric poet who published two collections of her poems. Two of their three sons became well-known transportation administrators who led several large American

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

s: *

W. Graham Claytor Jr. William Graham Claytor Jr. (March 14, 1912 – May 14, 1994) was an American attorney, United States Navy officer, railroad executive, and an administrator of railroad, transportation, and defense affairs for the United States government, workin ...

(1912–1994) headed the Southern Railway and later

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

. * Robert B. Claytor (1922–1993) was president of the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

, and the first president of the new

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

when it was created in 1982. "The Claytor Brothers: Virginians Building America's Railroad" is a semi-permanent exhibit at the

Virginia Museum of Transportation The Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) is a museum in Downtown Roanoke, Virginia, that is devoted to the topic of transportation. History The Virginia Museum of Transportation began in 1963 as the Roanoke Transportation Museum in Wasena ...

References

* John T. Kneebone et al., eds., ''Dictionary of Virginia Biography'' (Richmond, 1998- ), 3:295-296.

External links

Claytor Lake State Park (Virginia)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claytor, W. Graham 1886 births 1971 deaths People from Roanoke, Virginia Businesspeople from Virginia 20th-century American businesspeople