After forty-two years of service to the members of Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative, J. C. Smith is hanging up his climbing spurs to relax. The Dunlap Crew lineman began his career at SVEC in July of 1964. He started his career with SVEC as an apprentice lineman and worked his way up to line foreman. Smith said that he owes a lot of his success to the guidance of Joe Hatfield, J.C. Davis and Buddy Burgess, former supervisors and co-workers who showed him the ropes and gave him the support and training he needed to do a good job in a safe, efficient manner.“They are good men and I would like to thank them for all they did to give me a good start,” said Smith. These days you can find J.C. fishing, working in his garden and thoroughly enjoying his retirement. His wife Alice Jane, a former Day Care owner and pre-school teacher, has also retired and is helping J.C. find things to do with his time. The couple have two children, Lisa and Kevin and two grandchildren, Destiny and DaJohn. They attend Bethel Church of Christ in Dunlap.
In a world where the average worker changes jobs every 8 to 10 years, Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative is honoring the retirement of two long-time employees whose combined years of service reach almost a century!
Jimmy Pirtle, a truckdriver in the Tracy City service area has almost double the traditional 30-year mark that most people strive for at retirement. He began his career with SVEC in September of 1948, nearly fifty-nine years ago. During this time it was not uncommon to find Jimmy the first man reporting in for work each morning, ready to go to work.
He recalled that in the early days SVEC did not even have an office in Grundy County, they worked out of the line foreman's garage at his home. He has seen some amazing changes in the technology during his tenure which began at a time when most line work was done by hand with hard physical labor. Now as he finishes his career, most of the strenuous physical work is done by machine. He has also seen a lot of paperwork replaced by computers. These days Jimmy is taking it easy at home with his wife Margaret.
Pikeville’s Alfred Terry also passed up the thirty-year benchmark, serving just over 34 years with SVEC. Terry came to SVEC in 1973 after several years as a lineman with TVA and most recently has served as line foreman in the Pikeville District.Terry says that he is thoroughly enjoying his retirement. So far he says that he “has not been doing a thing.”
“I am just enjoying having no schedule, not setting an alarm clock and just doing whatever I want, whenever I want.” He does have some cattle that take a little of his time but even that is something that he enjoys.
We at SVEC are proud to salute these outstanding retirees and wish them well in their new found leisure time.