This Is Man’s Deed

Aug 24, 2026

From the GRDA history files …

Mrs. Francis Hope (Kerr) Holway was the wife of William Rea (W.R.) Holway, longtime consulting engineer for the Grand River Dam Authority. Mr. Holway, a 1916 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was the lead engineer on the construction of GRDA’s Pensacola Dam, 1938 – 1940.

When that massive construction project — which provided jobs for thousands of Oklahomans during the Great Depression – was completed, Mrs. Holway, who had been a schoolteacher, put pen to paper to celebrate the monumental achievement.

And truly it was monumental. After all, Pensacola Dam stretches out for a mile across the Grand River Valley and is defined by its multiple arches which helped land the impressive structure on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. But all that concrete, all that iron, all that blood, sweat and tears did not just happen. It took the effort of thousands of men and women, working long hours in the sun and heat, rain and wind, dust, and smoke, to complete the dam that has benefited so many others throughout the years.

Mrs. Holway forever immortalized those efforts in her poem:

This Is Man’s Deed

Glorious and eternal

These towers and walls

Remember

Dreams of young men

Magnificent in hope

The long and crowded hours

When patient skill

Daring to create

Formed and shaped the plan

And labors heavy round

Brave constancy of toil

Making the vision real

The plan complete

This poem is inscribed on a plaque, located on the west end of Pensacola Dam. It is also on display inside the powerhouse.

GRDA is Oklahoma’s largest public power electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Each day, GRDA strives to be an “Oklahoma agency of excellence” by focusing on the 5 E’s: electricity, economic development, environmental stewardship, employees, and efficiency.

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