José de Freitas Escobar Júnior, was one of the more important figures in the Azores, owing to his management and directorship of the Cooperative Ilha das Flores, for 40 years. Native of Flores, he had emigrated to the United States and later to Brazil, before returning some years later when his brother was gravely ill. He decided to remain, because he felt he could contribute to Lajedo; the fact that he had engineered electrical light thirty years before the electrification of the parish, already made him a popular figure. The system was complex, but its functioning demonstrated the authors capacity: he was made president of the municipal council of Lajes between 1944 and 1946 and, once again in 1948. He died in 1986, at the age of 84, in the parish of Mosteiro.