Video by Pam Stevenson, Agave Productions Inc., for Historical League
Jack Pfister is a builder and shaper of Arizona. A fourth-generation Arizonan, he was born in Prescott. His father died when he was three, and he was raised by his mother who supported him and his brother by working at a local radio station. She had a program called “Bobby Pfister’s Briefcase with Home Hints and Hollywood Gossip,” and worked as an announcer and program director.
Mr. Pfister says Prescott was a small, close-knit town when he was growing up. “We had a number of surrogate fathers who would report to my mother whenever we were doing something inappropriate, so we had a lot of people watching over us.” As a boy, he had a number of jobs earning money to help the family finances. He cleaned out chicken pens for a neighbor and delivered newspapers for the Prescott Courier. In high school, he worked as a janitor at the Yavapai County Courthouse, and in summers, he worked on survey crews with the Arizona Highway Department.
In 1951, Jack Pfister graduated from Prescott High School. He wanted to become a petroleum engineer but went to the University of Arizona and earned his degree in metallurgical engineering because, “I couldn’t afford to go out of state.” After graduation, he went to work for Shell Oil Company in a refinery in the Los Angeles area. He met his wife, Pat, a nurse from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After a year working as an engineer, Mr. Pfister decided he wanted to do something more “people oriented.” He remembered that as a courthouse janitor, he sometimes finished early and would go into the law library to read cases. In 1956, he returned with his bride to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona Law School.
Jack Pfister began his career as a lawyer in the Phoenix law firm of Jennings, Strouss and Salmon, where he represented Salt River Project. In 1970, he joined SRP in an administrative capacity and became the general manager six years later. During his tenure, SRP grew from a local water management and hydro-electric power company to become one of the nation’s largest public utilities. It built two massive coal-fired power plants, the Navajo Generating Station near Page and the Coronado Generating Station near St. Johns. Salt River Project also became a partner in the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. By the time Jack Pfister retired in 1991, SRP had added approximately 360,000 customers and increased its revenues by more than one billion dollars.
During his years at SRP, Pfister also guided the company through the massive floods of the late 1970s that resulted in the reconstruction of Roosevelt Dam and growth of SRP’s flood management capacity. He worked on the complex Ground Water Management Act and the settlement of Indian Water Rights claims. He served under several Arizona governors on commissions involving growth and water issues.
SRP had a long tradition of community involvement and during his two decades of employment there, Jack Pfister served on the boards of many community organizations, including the Phoenix Forty, Arizona Board of Regents, Arizona Town Hall, Flinn Foundation, Girl Scouts, YMCA, Arizona Humanities Council, and Arizona Historical Society. Mr. Pfister encouraged SRP managers and employees to get involved in the community. “I think it’s important that Salt River Project be a good citizen. The community has been good to Salt River Project, and I think there’s a reciprocal responsibility. I believe that as part of social responsibility, corporations need to be actively involved in the community.”
After leaving SRP, Jack Pfister served Arizona State University as ASU Research Park President and as Institutional Advancement Vice President. When Jane Hull suddenly became Governor of Arizona, she asked Mr. Pfister to be a member of her transition team. He also chaired Governor Hull’s Growing Smarter Commission. Jack Pfister has pursued some of his other goals. He says he always wanted to teach and to write. As a professor in ASU’s School of Public Affairs, he has taught courses on management, leadership, and ethics. He tells students they should, “Work hard to be happy. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit." He says he’s most comfortable working behind the scenes to accomplish goals. In his retirement, JackPfister continues to serve on many volunteer boards and committees, and he hopes to devote his time to what he calls “my final career,” writing about Arizona history.
Historymaker Jack Pfister biography published in 2003.
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