• Born July 23, 1949, in Worthington, Indiana.

• Married to Patty for 26 years and has five children: Ralph Bowersock, Jr., Sherry Mayden, Michalina Peterson, Travis Bowersock and Kurtis Bowersock. One of his sons is a line foreman for Henkels & McCoy in the Salem, Illinois, office.

• Plays the six-string guitar and enjoys fishing, hunting, gardening and working with small draft horses.

• Describes himself as a hard worker who expects no more from anyone who works for him than he expects from himself. His coworkers would describe him as firm but fair.

Early Years

I got into the utility industry out of necessity. In 1971, I came out of Vietnam looking for a better job. My brother-in-law turned me on to it. He signed up to get an apprenticeship in Indianapolis as an IBEW lineman, so I also signed up and became a lineman.

For a contractor working for a utility, my first job was supposed to start the day my oldest son was born, but I was able to delay it for one day. I went to work for a foreman out of Brazil, Indiana. He made me do groundwork for the month I worked for him. That teaches you a lot about the industry for a start.

Typical Day

I get up at 4 a.m. and drive to Evansville, Indiana, about an hour commute. I do reports and before 7 a.m., I get the crews their daily job work. I also have a job briefing with a safety meeting on that line and leave them with a thought for the day — coming back that evening with all their fingers and toes and going home that way.

Meeting the Challenge

The biggest challenges are jobs that look impossible, and making those jobs possible. The rewards are seeing what we have accomplished. For example, the last major job in Evansville was a 28-mile rebuild on 69/138 kV. This crossed a very muddy and environmentally sensitive area. We had to do a lot of tiptoeing around and figure out ways to cross that area without disturbing the ground any more than we had to.

Learning About Safety

I finished a job where a friend of mine who I worked with was killed. I realized that on any day we work, our lives are in danger. If you stay conscious of safety every moment at work, and keep your mind on safety for the job at hand, you have a better chance to survive. That's what I learned that day.

The Wake of Destruction

My most memorable storm moment was Hurricane Katrina. We spent about three weeks in Pass Christian, Mississippi. In the beginning, we slept in our trucks. They had areas set up to shower and, as time went on, tents for us to sleep in, so it was bearable. We started in Lucedale, Mississippi, though, and they attributed the fact that their power came on to Henkels & McCoy. Seeing what Mother Nature could do on a large scale is what I took away from that project. It was the most destruction I had ever seen. For miles, everything was basically gone.

Memorable Moment

One experience I tell stories about is the steel erection work I did for Tennessee Valley Authority. I did steel erection on 500-kVA triple bundle conductor on a tower crew. We framed angle towers pretty much from the ground up. It's hard to explain, but you jumped the gin outside the tower as you built it. That is one of the most unique things I have seen manually, where there are no hydraulics involved. That was back in 1977-78.

Drawing Inspiration

The one person who inspired me in the electrical industry was my cousin, an electrician. When I was about 13 years old, he told me if I got into the electrical field, I would never be without work. He was right. Another person who inspired me was my father-in-law, who was probably the greatest person I ever knew. He wasn't a lineman, but he was a carpenter and caretaker by trade.

Working in the Industry

If I had to do it over again, I would definitely go into the power industry. It has been good to me.