Floyd E. Dominy | Federal dam chief, 100

Floyd E. Dominy, 100, a federal water official who shepherded some of the West's big dam projects to completion, died April 20 in Boyce, Va.

Mr. Dominy, who served as commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1959 to 1969 under four presidents, was politically connected, smart, and determined. He believed that a good river was a dammed river and ran the bureau before landmark environmental laws made it harder to push through projects with little regard for ecological consequences.

"He relished the power he had and used it to do what he thought was the right thing to do for the country," said Roger Patterson, a former reclamation official who is assistant general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "He was a legend."

Mr. Dominy's tenure is best known for the opening of Glen Canyon Dam, which plugged the Colorado River and flooded a glorious canyon landscape, creating Lake Powell. Conservationists considered the dam one of the worst environmental sins in the West. Mr. Dominy called it his "crowning jewel."

"He was a man who was promoting reclamation at a time of big dam building when people didn't understand the environmental cost of big dams nor the spiritual and societal value of free-flowing rivers," said Bruce Hamilton, deputy executive director of the Sierra Club.

- Los Angeles Times