State schools fueled energy firm's chief         
Quality, cost attracted Priory to W.Va. colleges                

George Hohmann <business@dailymail.com>
Daily Mail business editor

Monday February 28, 2000; 03:33 PM

Richard "Rick" Priory has fond memories of his college days in West Virginia. Today he is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., where he is chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Duke Energy Corp.

Priory was named president and chief operating officer of Duke Power Co. in 1994. Duke Power and PanEnergy Corp. merged in 1997, creating Duke Energy. Priory became president of Duke Energy in 1998.

Duke traces its roots back to 1899. Today the company generates, moves, manages and markets electricity and natural gas. The company achieved record revenues of $21.7 billion in 1999.

In a recent interview, Priory, 53, discussed his West Virginia connections.

Priory: That's pretty straightforward. After high school I was working for a year before I went to college and I had a couple of options, in terms of going to college. I lived in New Jersey at the time and one of those options was not New Jersey because it was very expensive. So I had really two options. One was to go to California. At that time if you established residency in California, you could get an education pretty inexpensively. The other option was West Virginia. The state had a great educational system and it was relatively inexpensive.

I had a couple of friends who had gone to West Virginia and enjoyed what they were doing. So I went to get an education. And sure enough, I think I got one -- I got a pretty good one, starting at Beckley College. I was there for a year and ended up transferring over to West Virginia Institute of Technology, to go into the engineering program.

Along the way, I did a little work for Union Carbide Corp. in Charleston. Actually, when I graduated from school, that was my first engineering job. I worked there for a couple of summers and they hired me right out of Tech, and I did that until I ended up going back to graduate school.

Priory: Yes. I was born at Lakehurst Naval Air Station. Remember the Hindenberg -- the dirigible? I was born on that base. My father used to fly blimps for the Navy.

Priory: That was 1965. I graduated from high school in 1964 and spent about a year working before starting in Beckley. I graduated from the West Virginia Institute of Technology in December 1969.

Priory: Well, of course there are a number of West Virginia ties now. But not prior to that time.

Priory: The most significant individual was a physical education director at West Virginia Institute of Technology (Robert Brown). I was a dorm counselor, earning a few bucks along the way, and had run out of money to finish my education midway through my junior year. I never even mentioned it to him, but he found out I ran out of money. He showed up in my dorm room one day and asked me if I needed some help trying to sort out how I was going to fund the rest of my education. I said, ‘I'll take any help I can get.'

He ended up marching me over to the financial aid area and helping to show me how you could get financial aid. Sure enough, with a little bit of help from him, I ended up getting on national defense student loan program and borrowed the money necessary -- along with my working -- enough money to finish my education. I was really planning to leave school and go to work for a year or so and then come back. He was kind enough to help me short-circuit that and let me just continue on and finish my education. A great guy.

Priory: Yeah. Particularly when he sought me out, because at that time I really had no idea what to do next. The only thing I envisioned was going to work, earning the money and then coming back to school. I didn't want to do that, but I really didn't have any options. He's the one who showed up and put some options on the table I hadn't even dreamed of. I had never thought about borrowing money to go to school. So he gave me a little push there.

I might add I am one of the very few that paid back every penny of that loan. I made payments for 10 years on that thing. I paid off every darn penny of it because I was awful grateful to get it.

Priory: It was certainly special for me, in that it offered an educational opportunity that was difficult to find elsewhere. The education has proven over the years to be first-rate. I always thought the people in West Virginia were very pleasant, very kind. And of course the surroundings -- the mountains -- make it an interesting place to both visit and to live.

Priory: Yes, I do have a number of friends, I simply don't see them very frequently. Interestingly enough, I was given the "Alumni of the Year Award" in 1998. It was the first time in 30 years or so I went back to what is now West Virginia University Institute of Technology. I went to homecoming there as part of the ceremony.

I got to run into a whole series of folks, some of whom I went to school with and who eventually went on to get their Ph.D.'s. and came back and were on the faculty. Even the head of the department at the time I went to school was still with the same college. He was associate dean and just about to retire. His name is Stafford Thornton. He was head of the department when I was there.

I can remember him distinctly advising me not to take the second year of calculus and to repeat the first year of calculus. I had come from Beckley College and I said, ‘No, I had paid for it,' and I thought I had grasped the subject matter. He insisted, at one point. And I insisted. He said, ‘Well, son, you can go ahead and try it.' I said, ‘Thank you very much,' and I aced Calculus 2 and Calculus 3. He was an important part of my education as well.

He's an avid golfer so when I was in West Virginia, I asked if he was going to go over to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, N.C. He said no, he had put in for the raffle to try to get tickets but had been unsuccessful. Because we are a major supporter of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, I was in possession of a lot of tickets. I said, ‘Look, why don't you come and be my guest, enjoy the U.S. Open and bring a friend.' He did in fact do that. He showed up at the U.S. Open and we put him in our hospitality tent and I think he enjoyed himself watching the U.S. Open and Payne Stewart and the last putt.

I enjoyed going back and visiting the school. In fact I took my family -- my two children, my son, who is now 26; my daughter, who is 29; and my son's wife. My daughter's husband could not make it because of business. We all went. They had never been there. I drove around the school and the neighborhood and showed them where my wife and I (lived) -- my senior year we got married and she came back to school with me. So we got the chance to show the kids where we lived there for a year or so, and showed them where we lived in Charleston when I worked for Union Carbide. It was a great experience, to bring the kids back to where their father and mother got their start.

Priory: No, she's from northern New Jersey. I met her during a spring break when I had gone back home to visit. I ran into her; we started dating. By my senior year, we decided to get married to finish my senior year. So we headed back to West Virginia.

Priory: She worked in Charleston to support us. She worked for four or five months for the Lashinsky brothers. They owned the Lipizzan stallions and were programmers of events in the Charleston area. Then she went over to a computer school, I believe it was the Electronic Computer Programming Institute. She took a bus to Charleston, worked all day, then took the bus home -- about 30 miles or so from Charleston. So she put bread on the table my senior year. If I'd not met her, I'm not sure where I would be. I don't think the student loan program had enough money to cover my senior year. She did a wonderful job of doing that.

Priory: I'm well aware of that, I sure am.

Priory: We were for many years predominantly an electric company, which had a defined service territory. That has changed rather dramatically in the last three to five years. We are happy owners of assets in a variety of states. None in West Virginia at this time, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days we didn't own a power plant or something in West Virginia. We would be willing if the opportunity presented itself.

Priory: West Virginia was having some difficulty in keeping its educated talent home.

Priory: Yeah, and gosh, that was frustrating because they have wonderful schools. They have very well-educated talent. I understand things are similar -- when I visited, I got the same impression. They've got to find a way to hold onto that intellectual talent they have and likewise, to continue to support all kinds of efforts at economic development -- and do it in an environmentally sustainable way.

But most important is the intellectual talent possessed by the state. So many of the kids I went to school with did, in fact, grow up in West Virginia and, I'll tell you, there are not many of them -- that I am aware of -- that stayed. It was a loss to the state, no question about it. Of course West Virginia is not alone in that.

Priory: Yes, I think that's the combination that works: To be a strong promoter of economic development and also a diverse economic development -- that is, planned but very deliberate growth in a diverse way. So that growth, prosperity and economic development can then be used to retain the intellectual talent. You can't keep 'em home unless they've got good job opportunities, a good, thriving economy. That seems to me to be absolutely critical. And that comes first.

Priory: Gosh, it's really simple: Just work hard! Working hard does tend to pay off. Work hard and smart. So many kids these days, they'll learn that over time. But every now and then it's important to keep telling them that. I know everybody hates to hear that. Unfortunately, I think that is the combination: Work hard and smart.

I worked at it, that's for sure.

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