Vernon A. Wright

Vernon Ames Wright, the founder and first president of Otter Tail Power Company, was born in Minneapolis on April 23, 1862. He attended the Minneapolis schools and then enrolled in the University of Minnesota. He was there for about a year when he came down with diphtheria. He was so sick for so long that he had to drop out of the University, and he never went back.

After he recovered, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a major in architecture. While at M.I.T. he spent one summer working as a rodman on a crew that was surveying the route for the Northern Pacific branch line from Wadena, Minnesota, to Oakes, North Dakota.

After graduating from M.I.T., Wright studied architecture at the L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris. He also studied modeling in Italy. When he returned to this country, he and a man named Coolidge formed the architectural firm of Wright and Coolidge in Boston. He designed a number of buildings in Boston, some of which still are  standing. He also designed several buildings for the Harvard University campus.

In 1905 Wright gave up his architectural practice in Boston and dissolved his partnership with Coolidge. At the time he and his family were living in Fergus Falls, but he still retained his home in a Boston suburb. In 1909, shortly after the city dam failed, his family returned to Massachusetts.

In 1913 Wright moved his family to Minneapolis, spending summers at their cottage on Swan Lake. Mr. Wright commuted between Fergus Falls and Minneapolis on weekends. During the week, he was a boarder at private homes.  One was the C.R. Wright home.

Although Wright was not a permanent resident of Fergus Falls, he was civic minded. He used his skills as an architect to design and build the George B. Wright Memorial Hospital with his own money, then donating it to the city. He also designed the first public library, the River Inn, the original Otter Tail Power Company General Office beside the inn, and several other buildings in Fergus Falls.

Vernon Wright was a quiet and reserved person. He was not someone who stood out in a crowd. He was a thoughtful person with broad interests. Above all he had vision, and he was often far head of the technology of his day. One author described him as a practical visionary. He had ideas -- good ideas. One of his most outstanding engineering feats was the Hoot Lake Diversion Project.

The Otter Tail River approaches Fergus Falls from the north, but before it reaches the city it makes a big loop to the east. Wright saw that if he built a dam on the river where it turns east and a diversion channel south to where the river comes into Fergus Falls, he would short circuit the loop and develop a head of around 70 feet.  That would power a fairly large hydroelectric station where Hoot Lake Station is now.

Construction work on Diversion Dam and the diversion channel began in 1913 and was completed in 1914. The first electricity was generated by the new station on September 13, 1914.

Wright felt a high sense of responsibility to his customers. They deserved good service and they should be treated with respect. In 1934 when the company was struggling financially, he lowered the company's rates because he knew his customers were going through hard times. That customer service attitude was passed on, and it is still company policy today.

Wright also had a strong bond with his employees. To him they were almost like a family. He knew most of their names and he was concerned about their welfare. If you asked employees what they thought of Mr. Wright, the most frequent responses were "He is a very nice man" or "He is a real gentleman."

One of Wright's hobbies was carving. He liked to carve figures out of wood and he was very good at it. He read a lot, and he was a pretty fair piano player, too.

In 1933 Wright stepped down as president of the company and turned the office over to his oldest son, Thomas Wright, but he remained active in company affairs as chairman of the board.

Vernon Wright died in Minneapolis on October 29, 1938, at the age of 76.

Written by Myron Broschat, Otter Tail Power Company retiree

References: The Power People by Ralph Johnson, Otter Tail Power Company by Thomas Wright, Otter Tail Power Company Historical Data by Caroline Bale, Otter Tail County Historical Museum, and Interview with Robert Wright