Some People Just Won't Take No for an Answer. Fortunately, Chris Hedges, owner of Christopher C. Hedges Co., an electrical contracting firm in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S., is one such person. Had Hedges listened to the naysayers he encountered early in his career, the electric industry not only might be minus a dedicated businessman, but also one of the nation's foremost porcelain insulator collections.

“I first became interested in the electrical world when I was four or five years old,” Hedges remembers. “My family owned a farm in the Ozarks that we traveled back and forth to on weekends. During one of the drives, I noticed an old open-wired telephone feed along the highway being dismantled. I persuaded my parents to let me talk to some of the workers. Before I knew it, the electricians were imparting their knowledge to me, and some of them gave me a couple of old insulators. That's what got me started collecting them.”

Throughout his school years, Hedges remained fascinated by the electrical world, following line crews around on his bike, asking questions and observing them at work. After graduating from high school, Hedges wanted to join a lineman's apprenticeship program. “However, back in the early 1970s, you had to be 21 years old to be accepted into an apprentice program,” he says. “Since I was only 18, I decided to attend the University of Missouri.”

A few years spent at college confirmed what Hedges had known all along — he wanted to be an electrician. “But by the time I decided to pursue a spot in an apprenticeship program, I was 23 years old, and no one would take me on. They said I was too old!”

After much disappointment and frustration, Hedges decided to train himself. Although he lived in Missouri, Hedges drove the short distance to Kansas to study. Because eastern Kansas and western Missouri border each other, travel between the two states is convenient. “Kansas is an open-shop state,” he explains. “There, I taught myself inside wiring and eventually got licensed as an electrician in Johnson County, Kansas. Since then, I've also gotten licensed in Missouri and have studied line work and construction standards of utilities all over the country.”

Hedges' interest in all things electrical extends beyond wires, relays and circuits. Over the past four decades, he has amassed a collection of approximately 1500 vintage porcelain insulators. According to Hedges, the crown jewels of his collection are the rare high-voltage porcelain insulators, of which he has around 200. “The early insulators from the Edison experiments, the Telluride experiments and the Mershon experiments — I have all that,” he says. “There aren't a large number of pieces known to exist, and I've been fortunate over the years to acquire some of them.”

Hedges' passion for his hobby also led to a face-to-face meeting with industry-icon Brent Mills, the one-time president and CEO of Lapp Insulator (LeRoy, New York, U.S.), and the person who, in the late 1960s, wrote the first insulator reference book on high voltage, titled Porcelain Insulators and How They Grew.

“About 22 years ago, I got stuck in LeRoy for the day and on a whim decided to look up Brent Mills in the phone book,” Hedges says. “He graciously invited me over when I called him, and we spent the entire day discussing the industry and its history.”

When Hedges mentioned to Mills how significant his book had been to not only the industry but to the insulator collecting hobby as well, Mills took Hedges down to his basement and showed him a pallet full of the books still in their original wrappings. Ultimately, Hedges ended up selling the remainder of the books for Mills.

In addition to collecting insulators, Hedges is involved in displaying items historically significant to the electric industry. “I'm on the board of directors for the International Lineman's Museum,” he says. Located in Shelby, North Carolina, U.S., the museum was created to preserve the history of linemen and the electric utility industry.

Hedges also serves as president of the Electric League of Missouri and Kansas, whose goal is to identify and meet the needs of member businesses in Missouri and Kansas that provide products or services to the electrical industry.

The Electric League has a program called the Eddy Awards named after Thomas Edison, aimed at students in elementary, middle and high school. Students work together to create a two- to five-minute video presentation on one of three topics related to electricity — careers in the electrical industry, electrical safety and/or how electricity has changed the way they live.

Despite his numerous professional achievements, Hedges says he realizes the need for personal fulfillment. “Owning a business is great,” he says. “The income is nice, and so is the security of having a good job. But I also have my wife, Marilyn, and our nine-year-old son. At the end of the day, it's just as important to be there for your family.”