Julian Cleveland Smith

Julian Cleveland Smith (October 7, 1878 – June 24, 1939) was a Canadian engineer and business executive originally from the United States. He was associated for many years with the Shawinigan Water and Power Company, of which he was president from 1933 to 1939, and with the Montreal Tramways Company. He is considered the architect of the hydroelectric development of the Saint-Maurice River in central Quebec. Born in Elmira, New York, in the southwest of the State of New York, in October 1878, he moved with his family to Buffalo, where he attended elementary and high school together with his twin brother Joslyn. He enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Although his twin brother died in January 1897, Smith continued his studies and received his degree in mechanical engineering, with electrical option in 1900. The 1900 Cornell yearbook describes him as a discreet and studious young man who had military ambitions before he chose to put his energies into his electrical engineering program. After he graduated, he worked as an industrial designer for a manufacturing company and for the Pan-American Exposition which took place in Buffalo in 1901. He later joined the engineering firm of Wallace C. Johnson, in Niagara Falls, as a draftsman. In September 1902, Johnson and Smith arrived in Shawinigan Falls to help with the construction of the hydroelectric facilities of the Shawinigan Water and Power Company. The company offered Smith a job as superintendent and he moved to Montreal. Smith rose through the ranks and became general superintendent in 1906, chief engineer in 1909, vice president in 1915 and vice president and general manager the next year. He succeeded J. E. Aldred as president of SWP in 1933. Smith had been associated with the SWP's major hydroelectric developments for the company's first 40 years - Shawinigan-2, Grand-Mère, La Gabelle, Rapide-Blanc and La Tuque generating stations – as well as management of the Saint-Maurtice River which gained him the title of "Architect of the Saint-Maurice".