Company Presidents
J. B. French
The first president of Black Hills Power and Light Company, J. B. French, was born March 22, 1892, at Syracuse, Missouri. In 1912, he started a 60-year utility industry career as he began work in the Carthage, Missouri, office of the Empire District Electric Company.
In 1916, he married Grace Stults at Osongo, Missouri. They moved to Fort Scott, Kansas, where he was sales manager of the Fort Scott Gas and Electric Company. That was his first association with a company that eventually became a part of Black Hills Power and Light Company. Fort Scott Gas and Electric Company was a subsidiary of the Community Power and Light Company, a small holding company headquartered in St. Louis. It included gas, electric, and water companies in Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
In 1929, French was transferred to Rapid City as Manager of Dakota Power Company. He later became President of the Company and General Manager of the South Dakota Division of General Public Utilities (Consolidated Power and Light Company). Black Hills Power and Light Company was organized on August 27, 1941, as electric properties constituting the South Dakota Division of General Public Utilities Inc., a Florida Corporation, and properties of Dakota Power Company, a South Dakota Company, were incorporated under the direction of Mr. French. He was President and General Manager of the Company until 1957. He also served as President of Southern Colorado Power Company with electric properties at Pueblo, Colorado, in the 1950's. He became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Black Hills Power and Light Company in 1957, a position he held until his retirement in 1972. The Board of Directors then honored French by making him Director Emeritus of the Company for life. Mr. French was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Western Power and Gas Company in 1961.
French died at Los Angeles, California, in November 1978 at the age of 86.