As president, CEO and chairman of the board at KG&E, Wilson K. Cadman ’51 was called upon to use insights gained from his University of Wichita studies in psychology, as well as his own talents in getting things done.
The first Wichita native and the only person to start at KG&E at an entry-level job and become its chief executive, he served in that role from 1979-1992, one of the energy industry’s most difficult times. Faced with the OPEC oil embargo, he led KG&E to invest in new power plants. He also helped engineer the merger with Kansas Power and Light that led to the creation of Westar Energy. Named Wichitan of the Year in 1985, he was described as “a superbly competent corporate executive.”
Cadman, who served in the U.S. Navy before attending WU, began working at KG&E the year of his graduation, 1951. He kept many ties to his alma mater. He served as a WSUAA board member, for example.
Perhaps his most notable, surely his most timely, involvement with WSU was being the person to direct KG&E to install an electrical line and transformers in time to provide enough power for the 1970 benefit telecast broadcast from Levitt Arena, a star-studded fundraiser for those affected by the tragic football plane crash. Power was provided within three hours.
One of the stars was singer Kate Smith. “Today, even as an alumnus who has been to countless events over the lifetime of Henry Levitt Arena,” he once recalled, “I hear only one song when I go into the arena or see it from the street. It is Stout-Hearted Men.”
Wilson Cadman died Oct. 9, 2016 in Wichita.
