Services Held for Longtime Edison Executive Myers

Services were conducted Thursday for Edward Allan Myers Jr., a former vice president of Southern California Edison Co. and a 16-year resident of Orange County, who died Sunday after suffering a heart attack. He was 67.

Myers, who was born in San Francisco in 1923, developed marketing and conservation programs for the utility and later formed and headed a subsidiary, Mission Energy Co. He retired in 1988.

A 1943 graduate of UC Berkeley, Myers served as an infantry officer in World War II before beginning his business career in San Francisco.

After additional military service in the Korean War, Myers moved to Southern California, where he founded Prentiss Corp., an air-conditioning distribution company. He helped pioneer the introduction of commercial and residential air conditioning in California.

In 1963, Myers went to work for Edison as a marketing manager.

“When he came to Edison, there was no real marketing department--he basically established it,” recalled Mark Murray, vice president of Mission Energy. At the time, Edison was actively competing with the gas company for Southern California customers.

After Myers was made vice president of marketing and public relations in 1971, he stressed conservation and load management, “programs that were considered aggressive and innovative,” Murray said.

Myers also designed and implemented Edison’s bilingual advertising program.

In 1986, Myers formed a subsidiary company for Edison, Mission Energy Co., in Irvine. The company specialized in construction and operation of cogeneration power plants, which produced both heat and electricity.

“One of his great attributes was that he was a people person,” Murray said. “He recognized that to be a really effective executive required working well with people.”

A fifth-generation native Californian, Myers was keenly interested in California history. He was a member of the Society of California Pioneers and the historical association E Clampus Vitus. He also belonged to Pacific Coast Electrical Assn., Marketing Executives Conference and California Club.

Myers is survived by his wife of 46 years, Charlotte Myers of Laguna Niguel; five children, William Allan Myers of Yorba Linda, Robert King Myers of Santa Cruz, Nanci Spurgin of Irvine, Charles Edward Myers of Los Angeles and Laurel Winter Myers of West Covina, and five grandchildren.

Services were held at St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church in San Juan Capistrano.