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

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

, was the vice president of Appalachian Power Company, an electric utility service. He is best remembered for supervising the construction of the

Claytor Dam The Claytor Dam is a gravity dam on the New River in Pulaski County, Virginia, United States. It is also located about south of Radford. It is named after William Graham Claytor, then vice president of Appalachian Power Company (APC), who was in ...

and creation of a 4,500 acre (18 km²), 21 mile (34 km) long

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

on the New River in Pulaski County, a

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

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 hydroelectric project. It is named for W. Graham Claytor, Sr. (1886–1971) of Roanoke, Virginia, a vice president of Appalach ...

and surrounding

Claytor Lake State Park Claytor Lake State Park is a state park in Pulaski County, Virginia. 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 the Appalachian Power Compan ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

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 that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s: * W. Graham Claytor Jr. (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 inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

. *

Robert B. Claytor Robert Buckner Claytor (February 27, 1922 – April 9, 1993) was an American railroad administrator. He became President of the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1981 and was instrumental in the merger of the Southern Railway and the Norfolk & West ...

(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 Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

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 is a museum devoted to the topic of transportation located in Downtown Roanoke, Virginia, US. children under two years do not to buy tickets and students can get a discounted $10.5 ticket. History The Virg ...

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