A celebrated friend of electric cooperatives in Virginia has died. Preston Caperton Shannon, a longtime judge on the State Corporation Commission and a 2008 recipient of the Distinguished Friend of the Electric Cooperatives Award died Nov. 12. He was 96.
Preston Shannon
A native of Front Royal, Va., Shannon graduated from the Citadel and William & Mary Law School, He was a corporate attorney at the Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway prior to joining the SCC as commerce counsel in 1969.
He was elected as an SCC commissioner in 1972 and served for 24 years, the second-longest term in history. As a judge on the regulatory body, he reviewed many cases involving electric cooperatives.
Shannon also was praised for conceiving the Tyler Building, which was a state-of-the-art headquarters for the commission when it was dedicated in 1993.
“If we’re going to regulate these industries, we’ve got to be the epitome of efficiency ourselves,” he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in late 1992.
Read additional information about the life of this important figure.