Michael Glueckert
Michael "Mike" Glueckert works as a troubleshooter and service man for Northwestern Energy in Montana. While the company's service obligation ends outside at the meter, Mike can often be found in the basement of someone's grandmother working on a fuse box in a century old house. His commitment to his community and keeping the power on is strong. When a new training center was opened in Helena, Mike gave up time on the weekends to help with the new training venture. Since then, his instructional style, and phenomenal skill, as well as his pride in his work, has made him a favorite among the apprentices. Mike's pride in his work includes competition. He never misses a chance to compete with a team in the Montana Lineman's Rodeo, and often travels with a team to the International Rodeo. In addition to being an apprentice trainer, student mentor, and extraordinary lineman, Michael is also a woodsman, sportsman, conversationalist, and writer.
William Seamone
William "Bill" Seamone began his career with the City of Concord's Electric System in 1968 as a ground technician. Spending the first 20 years of his career as a lineman, Bill worked on line construction crews and later as the city's troubleshooter. Bill's favorite portion of his 40 plus year career was his time as a troubleshooter, because he was able to meet and personally assist so many people on a daily basis. Over the course of his career Bill was active in the North Carolina Association of Municipal Electric Systems (NCAMES) and its parent organization, Electricities of NC. During his time with Electricities, he participated in the review and re-write of the organization's Safety Manual and served on a team that monitored and maintained the Electricities Mutual Aid Program. Bill actively participated in leadership positions with NCAMES, including a term as President of the organization during 1993-94. He later served six years on the Board of Directors of Electricities of NC and in 2009 was awarded the NC Public Power Lifetime Achievement Award.
2010 Hall of Fame
Billy G. Smith
Billy G. Smith spent more than three decades as a lineman, crew foreman, and troubleman for the Southern California Edison Company. A man who loved to kid and tease with his fellow workers, his sense of humor and wit helped to liven up mandatory safety and training meetings and make it easier to accomplish the meetings goal with a room full of men who would rather be out working on the lines. Management always felt reassured when Billy G was the Service Crew Foreman on a job because they knew he would stay until the job was done and ensure everything was taken care of safely and quickly.
Ezra Cornell
Ezra Cornell was born in Worchester County, NY in 1809. His early career as a plow salesmen gave him a knowledge base to assist in a project to bury telegraph wires. He was later involved in the construction of telegraph poles connecting Washington D.C, Baltimore, and Maryland, the first substantial telegraph line to be constructed in the U.S. Cornell went on to make his fortune in the telegraph business as an associate of Samual Morse. To solve the problem of telegraph lines shorting out to the ground, Cornell introduced the idea for glass insulators at the point of connection between lines and pole.
Jimmy James
Born in Kokomo, IN in 1933, Jimmy James, first entered the electrical industry in 1952 working for the Public Service Company of Indiana. Jimmy joined the Navy in 1955 and later served as a lineman for the Air Force from 1957-1961. His career as an active lineman lasted more than 20 years, during which he weathered storms, tornadoes, and the ice breaks in the early 1960's. Jimmy's career as a trainer began in 1978 with Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA), and continues today with Safety Training Services. He takes great pride in his work and loves his industry, something that comes across to his students, who praise his commitment to the industry and his love of the job. Even now, in his late 70's, Jimmy continues to travel in a number of states to conduct training and safety programs for individual utilities.
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, born in 1791 just south of London, was a pioneer in the fields of electricity and magnetism. Largely self-educated, he led a distinguished career at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He invented the homopolar motor, which along with his experiments forms the foundation of modern electromagnetic technology. Faraday discovered such phenomenon as electromagnetic induction and mutual induction, conducted experiments later used by James Clerk Maxwell for a mathematical model referred to as Faraday's law, one of the four Maxwell equations that evolved into the generalization now referred to as field theory. Faraday later used this principle to create an electric dynamo, a precursor of modern power generators. His experiments produced such phenomena as electrostatic attraction, electrolysis, and magnetism, and he concluded that only a single "electricity" existed and that changing values of current and voltage.Faraday also proposed that electromagnetic forces extended into the space around a conductor, an idea that wasn't accepted until after his death. Faraday's most well known discovery was the principal behind the Faraday cage, a shielding effect produced because the charges exterior to a conductor redistribute in such a way that the interior fields are canceled out.
