On January 11, Carl Paul retired from FKEC after 46 years. In honor of his years of service and dedication, the Cooperative held a well-deserved farewell party.
Paul's family, co-workers and former co-workers gathered to wish him and his wife Janise a happy retirement. In heartfelt speeches they also took the opportunity to thank Paul and honor him with a bit"of "roasting."
In her speech, his wife Janise recalled being on vacation when Carl dragged the whole family to see a transformer in a sceanic part of the Carolinas. She also remembered never being able to take a vacation during hurricane season.
"How we ever got married during hurricane season, I don't know," she teased, recalling many missed anniversary dinners because Carl was at work during threatening storms.
Other co-workers thanked Paul for being a mentor, a good union boss and for always being a fair manager.
"For 46 years Carl built a career with FKEC and Carl built an electric system," said CEO Scott Newberry in his farewell address. "But Carl built more than facilities. He also built people...and he will be missed."
SCOTT NEWBERRY'S COMPLETE FAREWELL SPEECH:
Fellow employees, friends, family, welcome and thanks for being here tonight. We are here to celebrate Carl Paul, whose career is coming to an end after 46 years of dedicated service to FKEC.
Tonight I have the task of saying a few words about Carl and all that he has accomplished over the last 46 years. This has turned out to be a difficult task. I mean, how am I supposed to adequately describe all that Carl has seen, all that he has done and all that he has learned in the past 46 years? Besides, there are many people in this room that have worked much closer with Carl, for many more years and who have a lot better stories to tell. But, the task is mine and I set about trying to do it.
As I struggled with this task, I thought it might become easier if I settled on a specific theme. My first thought was to try to say something profound. That didn’t work. First off, I didn’t know what profound meant so I had to look it up. After reading its definition I decided that was beyond my capabilities. I then thought I would try for something humorous but that didn’t seem quite appropriate for an occasion of this magnitude. I then thought I would approach it from an emotional angle but realized Carl has made enough people cry over the years and I didn’t want to add to that. I finally decided to just talk about Carl.
Carl started with FKEC in 1961. He didn’t hire into this company with a fancy college degree and he didn’t come here with any sort of advantage. He hired in as a grunt, starting at the lowest level line crew position the company had at the time.
I was talking to Carl a couple days ago, just chit chatting a little about life and work and things. 46 years crept into conversation. I think we were both trying to figure out how someone manages something like that. He achieved it, but I think we were both having difficulty imagining it. But as we were talking about it, he told me a little story.
When Carl hired on, the company had a six-month probationary period. After just a day or two on the job, Carl found himself out in the field somewhere on his knees filling in a hole around a newly planted pole with his hands. He was throwing dirt in the hole by hand because he didn’t have a shovel. When he said that my first thought was “What kind of cheap assed company wouldn’t buy its employees a shovel”, but I quickly realized he didn’t have a shovel because they hadn’t been invented yet.
But I digress. Carl went on to tell me that he remembered thinking at the time that he wasn’t the least bit worried about the six-month probation period because if the job didn’t get any better real quick, he would be long gone before the probationary period was ever up.
I guess things got better during the next six months because for the next 46 years Carl built a career with FKEC and Carl built an electric system. He was setting poles, stringing wire and hanging transformers for years before the first bucket truck arrived at FKEC. As his responsibilities grew so did his projects. He oversaw construction of the transmission line that tied the north and south parts of our system together. He built the Marathon office building. He has literally had a hand in every aspect of the construction of our system as it expanded from serving 4,000 accounts when he started to 31,000 accounts today.
Carl built more than facilities though. Carl built people. So many of you in the room tonight are here because of Carl. He hired you, trained you, mentored you, disciplined you, joked with you, laughed at you and most of all, in his own way, cared deeply about you and the countless number of other people who have come and gone over the last 46 years.
Tonight, all that comes to an end, but I, for one, will not be saying goodbye. Carl may not be physically present around FKEC after tonight, but his work and his influence will be part of FKEC for years and years to come. You cannot say goodbye to someone who is FKEC and who always will be FKEC.
As Carl leaves, responsibility for maintaining and expanding our electric system falls to those of us who are still here. It is a big responsibility. Carl, I promise we will do our best to carry on and to live up to the high standards you have set for the last 46 years.
So Carl, this isn't goodbye, but on behalf of everyone in the room tonight, I would like to say thank you for 46 wonderful years and wish nothing but good things for you and your family as you enjoy a long, happy, healthy and well-deserved retirement.
As I was working on this, the phrase "let there be light" kept popping up in my head, so to end, I’ll leave you with a quote from Genesis:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
He created the light Carl, but for 46 years you've done a heck of a job delivering it.
You will be missed.
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