Carthrae Merrette Laffoon

Biography

Carthrae Merrette Laffoon was born in Coldwater, KS, on August 14, 1888, and was educated at the Warrensburgh State Teachers College and the University of Missouri, where he received the degree of Electrical Engineer in 1914 and a Master of Arts degree in 1915. Except for a short stint as an engineering inspector for Black and Veatch Consulting Engineers, Kansas City, MO, he worked at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation for most of his life, becoming manager of A-C Engineering Department. Mr. Laffoon was an author of many papers on all phases of a-c electric machine design and held patents on improvement in high-frequency generators, ventilation and double winding generators. He was a member of the Board of Examiners and was a Director of American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE, now IEEE) from 1942-1947. In 1949, Mr. Laffoon was awarded the 1949 AIEE Lamme Medal “for outstanding contributions to the design of electrical machines, particularly large turbine generators and high frequency generators.”