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He overhauled the electric company in the 1950s and helped launch WEDU-Ch. 3 and the Tampa Club.
By MICHAEL CANNING, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 15, 2002
William MacInnes called Tampa "a nice little town" not long after his first visit here in the '40s. In 1954, he came here to live.
Maybe it was our weather, typically much sunnier than that of his native Nova Scotia.
Or maybe it was that Tampa Electric Co. made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
After attending Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he got a master's degree in electrical engineering. He worked for Stone and Webster, a utility consultant firm.
MacInnes was stationed at major utilities in Savannah, Ga., Portland, Ore., and Reno, Nev. Starting in 1941, he made the first of several visits to that "nice little town" in Florida, consulting for TECO.
In 1954, TECO brought MacInnes on board as its president. He decided to overhaul the company's corporate culture and image, instituting a more open style of management and public relations. He even had TECO's infamous black service vehicles painted a warmer green. Employees called it "MacInnes Green."
MacInnes built up a civic profile outside of his job that any native Tampa resident would envy. He was involved in the launching of WEDU-Ch. 3, the Tampa Industrial Park near Busch Gardens and the Tampa Club. He had a hand in land purchases that led to construction of Curtis Hixon Hall, the Tampa Museum of Art and the main library. As president of the Florida State Fair, he oversaw its move from the University of Tampa campus to Interstate 4 and U.S. 301.
MacInnes was an early booster of what would become the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, the address of which happens to be 1010 W.C. MacInnes Drive.
He died in 1986 at 84.