Doherty, Henry Latham (1870-1939)

US utilities executive and engineer. He was chief engineer for Emerson McMillin & Company, part of a banking firm that owned Columbia Gas, and was general manager of all McMillin properties. He then formed his own company, providing various services to utilities.

He was born in Columbus, Ohio and started work as an office boy for the Columbia Gas Company. In 1900, he presented a famous paper on utility rates to the National Electric Association. He formed Cities Service, a holding company for his own acquisitions, numbering 53 companies in 1913 alone. He continued his engineering innovations in natural gas development and oil production, earning 140 patents in his lifetime, and he was equally ingenious in his financial transactions.