Loyal V. Bewley

Biography

Loyal V. Bewley was born in Republic, Washington on December 19, 1898. He received a BS degree from the University of Washington in 1923 and a MS from Union University in 1928. For seventeen years until 1940, he served as a design and development engineer with the General Electric Company; for the following 22 years he held the successive positions of Professor, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Dean of Engineering at Lehigh University. In 1962, he returned to the General Electric Company as an Educational Consultant.

During World War I he served three years in enlisted service, including duty in France. During World War II he served with the XII Corps. Colonel Bewley received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Commendation Ribbon; he organized and served as commandant for the first US Army Reserve School from 1950 to 1958 and he has served for 42 years in the Reserve and National Guard.

Loyal V. Bewley wrote five books and had an extensive record of personal contributions to the field of electric power transmission and distribution. These include numerous studies of transient behavior of transformers; investigations of transient voltages on transmission lines; contributions to the theory of equivalent circuits of transformers; and tests and calculations regarding the theory and behavior of counterpoise wires.

Bewley received many awards for his work, including the AIEE National Paper Prize in Theory and Research in 1932, the General Electric Charles Coffin Award in 1934, the Lehigh University Hillman Award in 1953, and membership in Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, and Eta Kappa Nu, and the IEEE. In 1963 he was awarded the IEEE Lamme Medal “for meritorious achievement in the theoretical analysis of high voltage surges resulting in an advancement of insulation design and improvement of protection for machines, transformers, station apparatus and transmission lines.”

Loyal V. Bewley died in July of 1991.