Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995                   TAG: 9511290061
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PAIR OF LONGTIME EMPLOYEES LEAVING ROANOKE APCO OFFICE

Appalachian Power Co. on Tuesday announced the retirement and reassignment of two top local officials whose departures will mean Roanoke operations no longer will include an executive at the rank of vice president.

Charles A. Simmons, vice president for construction and maintenance with Apco and a 40-year employee of the company, will retire March 30. He likely will continue working with Apco parent American Electric Power Co. as a consultant. A vice president since 1978, Simmons has been Apco's point man in its efforts to win regulatory approval for a new high voltage transmission line from Oceana, W.Va., to Cloverdale.

Also, H.E. "Butch" Rhodes, Apco's vice president for operations, will move to AEP headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, where he will head AEP's new Customer Services Group. Rhodes has been with the company since 1962, in Roanoke since 1975 and a vice president since 1985.

The changes are the latest in what has been a tumultuous year at Apco. Accompanying organizational shuffling, the company has seen a flood of personnel changes.

Apco, based in Roanoke, will for most purposes cease to exist on Jan. 1, with many of its functions absorbed into AEP.

AEP has been reorganizing its business in anticipation of further government deregulation and increased competition within the electric power industry for both wholesale sales of power and its retail sale to businesses and homeowners. AEP subsidiary companies such as Apco are being brought into a new AEP structure.

It was reported earlier this year that Apco President Joseph Vipperman would leave Roanoke Jan. 1 to assume a new job as head of AEP's new Energy Transmission and Distribution Group. Vipperman will not be replaced as president of Apco. Instead, J. Daniel Carson Jr., the other of three Apco vice presidents in Roanoke, will assume the new job of AEP's state president for Virginia and Tennessee on Jan. 1 and will oversee the company's governmental and public relations.

AEP will not have any vice presidents based in Roanoke when Simmons retires and Carson and Rhodes move to new jobs, Apco spokesman Don Johnson said.

Simmons, 60, began work for Apco in 1956 in his native West Virginia after graduating with an electrical engineering degree from West Virginia Institute of Technology. He came to Roanoke in 1972 as a labor-relations supervisor.

After his retirement, Simmons said he plans to take a couple of months off to decide what to do next and consider job offers he has received. He also plans to continue working with the Salvation Army and the Mill Mountain Zoo, on whose boards he serves.

"I certainly view it with some mixed feeling," Simmons said of the coming disappearance of Apco's name and entity. The electric industry needs to change, but having spent 40 years as a part of Apco, Simmons said it's hard to "see it go away without some nostalgia and a little feeling of regret."

Rhodes, 55, said he was looking forward to the challenges and opportunities of his new job in Columbus, such as putting new technology in place to help improve AEP's customer service.

All of AEP's customer service functions will be Rhodes' responsibility, including credit collection, meter reading and handling customer calls.