Lelan Sillin, Jr.

Lelan F. Sillin Jr. (April 19, 1918 – January 3, 1997) was a pioneer in the nuclear power industry, an advocate of nuclear safety, and chairman and chief executive of Northeast Utilities. Trained as an attorney, he first rose from general counsel to president and chief executive of Central Hudson Gas and Electric before ascending to the top of Northeast, Connecticut's largest public utility, a position he held from 1970 to 1983. He chaired the "Sillin Report", a 1986 analysis of the nuclear power industry, in which he chided some utility companies for simply meeting rather than exceeding regulatory requirements. During World War II he served in the United States Marine Corps in the South Pacific until 1945. He started his business career as a corporate attorney with the New York law firm of Gould & Wilkie, where he was general counsel for Central Hudson Gas and Electric in Poughkeepsie, New York. He later rose to become Central Hudson's president, and its chief executive in 1964. Forsaking law, he remained in the utilities industry, joining Northeast Utilities, a utility holding company, as president in 1968. Two years later he was named chairman and chief executive. Skyrocketing petroleum prices due to 1970s energy crises just reinforced this view. In addition to four "Yankee" nuclear plants already built by the individual firms that joined to become Northeast Utilities in 1966—"Connecticut", "Maine", "Vermont", and "Rowe"—the firm added two "Millstone" plants to its generation capacity during that decade.

Although Sillin helped make Northeast Utilities the most nuclear-powered utility in the nation during his tenure, he saw himself as an energy pragmatist. In a 1979 interview he bristled: "I don't like being classed as a nuclear proponent. I'm a utility man. As soon as we find a better technology, we'll go with it."

Sillin was an early advocate of nuclear power but criticized some nuclear operators for complacency. In a 1986 analysis on the nuclear power industry called the "Sillin Report," he chided utilities that simply met regulatory requirements "instead of striving for excellence."

Personal life

Sillin was married to Joan Outhwaite Sillin, with whom he had four sons, Lelan III of Syracuse, New York; John, of Potomac, Maryland; Andrew, of New Paltz, New York, and William of Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Mr. Sillin was a trustee at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and served on the board of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme.

He died in a traffic accident in Old Lyme at 78 on January 3, 1997.