Background
Julius Albert Krug was born on November 23, 1907 in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. He was the son of Julius John Krug, a policeman and prison warden, and Emma Korfmacher.
Julius Albert Krug was born on November 23, 1907 in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. He was the son of Julius John Krug, a policeman and prison warden, and Emma Korfmacher.
Krug attended the University of Wisconsin and received a Bachelor's degree in 1929 and an Master's degree in economics and utilities management in 1930.
During the early years of the Great Depression Krug served as a research analyst for the Wisconsin Telephone Company and later for the Wisconsin Public Utilities Commission. He became a close friend of David Lilienthal, later chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). From 1935 to 1937 Krug worked for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington, D. C. He was responsible for convincing the FCC that American Telephone and Telegraph was charging more than was reasonable for long-distance calls. However, he soon tired of the FCC because the agency seemed more interested in social reform than in regulating industry.
After returning briefly to Wisconsin, Krug accepted a position as a kind of troubleshooter for Kentucky governor A. B. Chandler. He reorganized the Kentucky Public Service Commission and supervised the rebuilding of electric power lines after the 1937 Ohio River flood. Krug then joined the TVA as its chief power engineer. In this post he was responsible for negotiating the TVA's purchase of many existing private power installations. He also supervised TVA construction projects. As Lilienthal's chief witness at congressional hearings on the TVA, Krug, who was six feet, three inches tall and weighed 225 pounds, defended the TVA vigorously in front of congressional committees.
During World War II Krug served in Washington, D. C. , as power coordinator, deputy director for priorities control, and director of the Office of War Utilities for the War Production Board (WPB). He worked six days and three nights a week with almost no vacations. Considered the "boy genius" of the WPB, he saw his main assignment as guaranteeing a steady flow of raw materials to key industries. He controlled the production and distribution of electrical, gas, and water power. Krug also served on committees that recommended how Europe should reestablish utility services in liberated areas.
In 1944 Krug resigned all of his positions and accepted a commission as a lieutenant commander in the navy. He was assigned to sea duty, but President Roosevelt soon called him back to Washington, D. C. , and appointed him chairman of the WPB, a post that had become vacant when Charles E. Wilson resigned after a policy dispute with his deputy, Donald Nelson. Krug presided over the WPB during the last year of World War II and ably charted a reconversion program that was designed to avoid massive unemployment after the war.
In 1946 President Harry S. Truman appointed Krug secretary of the interior. Krug tried to involve the federal government in massive reclamation projects as well as to expand other agencies such as the National Park Service. Truman was unable to persuade Congress of the necessity of these projects, and he finally tired of Krug's aggressiveness.
Late in 1949, after the steelworkers' strike, Krug resigned. He then left government service and returned to Tennessee, where for the rest of his life he worked in a variety of consultant positions and as a director in a Tennessee cotton mill.
One of his chief characteristics throughout life was his capacity for hard work.
On March 22, 1926 Krug married Margaret Catherine Dean, a childhood friend. They had two children.
