Former SWEPCO President and CEO J. Lamar Stall passes at 94

J. Lamar Stall (left) and Brian Bond, vice president – External Affairs for SWEPCO, are shown at a reception honoring Mr. Stall and the completion of the Stall Unit at Arsenal Hill (in background through window) in September 2010.Photo by: Scott McCloud

(Story by Scott McCloud)

SHREVEPORT — James Lamar Stall died Feb. 7 in Shreveport after a brief illness. He was 94 years old.

Mr. Stall was born September 19, 1918, in Gibsland, La. He graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a B.S. degree in accounting and attended Graduate School at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In 1959, he was named an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, where he graduated with an S.M. degree in Industrial Management.

After serving in the European Theatre in World War II, he and his wife, Johnette, settled in Shreveport where he was employed by Burroughs Adding Machine Company. In 1946, he was employed by Southwestern Electric Power Company and served as Accountant, Controller, Executive Vice President, and President/Chief Executive Officer.

During those years, Mr. Stall served as director of the Edison Electric Institute, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, and Pioneer Bank and Trust Company, now Capital One Bank. He served as the President of the local chapter of the National Association of Accountants and on the national level was Director and Vice President.

He served on the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, Committee of 100, the Board of Directors of the Louisiana State Fair Association, and the board of the Young Men’s Christian Association. In 1978, he was presented the United Way’s Clyde E. Fant Memorial Award for community service. He was also named by Louisiana Tech University’s College of Business Administration as the 1972 “Outstanding Alumnus.”

In his later years, Mr. Stall had great pride in the opening of the J. Lamar Stall Unit at Arsenal Hill in June 2010, SWEPCO’s newest plant in the Shreveport area and serving the Ark-La-Tex. He also had more time to devote to his 60-year allegiance to the Boston Red Sox.

A long time member of First United Methodist Church, he was a member of the Maida Mickle Couples Class, whose members have continued to support him in recent years.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Lindon Crisp Stall and Lillian Harrison Stall, and his wife of 60 years, Johnette Adger Stall.

He is survived by son, Lindon A. Stall and wife, Patricia, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, daughter, Kathryn Bruns, and husband, Jeremy, of Nacogdoches, TX, and grandson, James Brady McCollough, of Pittsburgh, PA.