Avista: Passing of an era

For more than a century, Avista and Washington Water Power Co. contributed leadership and charitable support to the Spokane area’s economic development and civic betterment initiatives.

In the early 1980s, for example, it was WWP CEO Wendell Satre who planted the seed for Spokane’s now-thriving university district. Satre contended at the time that Washington State University should have been constructed in Spokane instead of Pullman, and needed to begin correcting the mistake by moving graduate programs to Spokane where they could interact with the larger urban economy.

Later in the 1980s, WWP CEO Paul Redmond joined with the late Spokesman-Review Publisher William H. Cowles 3rd and local banker Dave Clack to lead Momentum 87, a group that sought to attract new jobs and raise Spokane wages. Momentum 87 recruited Boeing to construct a factory on the West Plains and pushed for the expansion of higher-education opportunities.

Stacey Cowles, who became the locally owned newspaper’s publisher following his father’s death, said “it’s sort of the passing of an era” to see another of Spokane’s pioneering local companies sold to outside interests/ John Webster , SR. More here.