David Alfred Starr
David Alfred Starr (c1859-1919)
1919 Obituary [1]
DAVID ALFRED STARR died on the 23rd June, 1919, at Bridge of Weir, near Glasgow, in his sixty-first year.
He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and educated at Mount Allison College, New Brunswick.
After serving his apprenticeship in Halifax, he joined the Canadian Pacific Railway, Civil Engineers' Department, and was engaged for several years on the construction of that Company's main lines in Western Canada.
Subsequently he crossed to the United States and joined the staff of the Thomson-Houston Company at their works in Lynn, Mass., returning in 1887 to Canada as General Sales Manager to the Royal Electric Company of Montreal.
After seven years with the Royal Electric Company, he turned his attention to civil and electrical construction work, being contractor and engineer on the construction of, among others, the Hull and Alymer Railway and the Cornwall Street Railway.
In 1900 he entered the service of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, and came to this country in 1901 to join the staff of the British Westinghouse Company at their Trafford Park Works, Manchester.
In 1903 he was appointed General Manager of the Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company. At this date the majority of the power companies, as known to-day, had just been granted their Parliamentary powers. Under his immediate supervision the Company's power stations at Mother well, Yoker, and Clyde's Mill were built, and the extra-high-tension distribution system installed. The Company's plant, which was largely extended during the war to meet the nation's demands, has now a capacity of 75,000 kilowatts.
He was endowed with tremendous energy, and he spent this almost prodigally in his all-absorbing desire to ensure the Clyde Valley Company's growth and prosperity from the foundations which he had laid. He had the gift of leadership, possessing, as he did, a unique charm of manner, and his many friends cherish the memory of a big-hearted man.
He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1909, and was Chairman of the Scottish Centre for the session 1915-16.