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Engineer Morris Llewellyn Cooke, circa 1940.
Credit: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association
Born in Carlisle, PA and educated at Lehigh University, Morris Llewellyn Cooke (1872-1960) was one of the nation's best known reform-minded engineers when President Roosevelt appointed him to lead the Rural Electrification Administration in March 1935. Between 1911 and 1916, Cooke had been Director of the Philadelphia Department of Public Works. In the 1920s he had served as an economic advisor to Governor Gifford Pinchot and on the Power Authority of the State of New York.