SEA Past Presidents, 1947-2020

Past Presidents and Brief History of SEA

Following is the list of presidents of the National Electric Cooperatives Statewide Editors Association. The group’s modern origins can be traced to the August 7, 1963, creation of the National Electric Cooperatives Editorial Association; the current name was adopted on August 20, 1995. Predecessor organizations included the National Rural Electric Cooperative Press Association (April 22, 1947, to July 8, 1958) and the Rural Electric Consumer Publications Cooperative (July 8, 1958, to August 7, 1963).

Statewide editors established their first training and education arm, the National Electric Cooperatives Editors Association (NECEA), on April 4, 1947, during the 5th NRECA Annual Meeting in Spokane, Washington. However, within three weeks the group’s name was changed to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Press Association, reflecting a broader membership than strictly statewide publication editors. For five years, 1958–63, the statewide editors group was called the Rural Electric Consumer Publications Cooperative. In 1963, it returned to its NECEA roots, this time with the second “E” standing for “Editorial.”

On December 4, 1952, members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Press Association incorporated the Rural Electric Consumer Publications Cooperative to handle national advertising sales. The two organizations co-existed, with different officers, until 1958 when the National Rural Electric Cooperative Press Association dissolved and its functions were transferred to the Rural Electric Consumer Publications Cooperative. That arrangement continued until the National Electric Cooperatives Editorial Association was constituted on August 7, 1963. Dick Pence, editor with the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives, noted at the time: “The National Electric Cooperatives Editorial Association was created as a separate entity so editors could talk about editing once in a while and not about advertising all of the time.” The Rural Electric Consumer Publications Cooperative was liquidated in 1968.

Perry Baird of Wisconsin was able to cobble together the first 30-plus years of presidents by gleaning information from an archive of association newsletters, letterhead, and memos. Michael Gery of North Carolina was able to provide a fairly complete list from 1990 on, as well as fill in some blanks from the 1980s. The remainder comes from reflections of statewide editors, past and present, articles published in Rural Electrification Magazine (now RE Magazine) in the early 1980s and again in the early 1990s, and various stray documents tucked away in musty statewide files that list a name. Enjoy!

—Perry Stambaugh

Editor, Penn Lines, 1990-2006

Editor, RE Magazine, 2006-2013

Editor, CFC Solutions News Bulletin