Biographical Sketch:
I was born in October, 1927, on the Huckle Hill Farm in Bernardston, Massachusetts, the 10th of eleven children of the Phelps family. I lived on a farm until the age of eight and then we moved to nearby Northfield, a town of about 2,000 residents.
As a lad I delivered newspapers in Northfield. In 1943 I was a bellboy at The Northfield Hotel. The following year I was employed at the IGA Store in East Northfield, where I worked until the middle of October, 1945.
Soon after V-J Day, on November 2, 1945, I signed up for a two year hitch in the U.S. Navy . I was stationed at Bainbridge, Great Lakes, Philadelphia and Norfolk. While at the Great Lakes Naval Center I attended a course in electronics, training that would be very useful in my later career. In January of 1947 I shipped overseas to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There I served as an apprentice aerographer (meteorologist). Honorably discharged from the Regular Navy on October 27, 1947, I remained an inactive member of the Navy Reserve until 1950.
I returned to Northfield and worked as a power company laborer. In March of 1948, driving my 1938 Ford Sedan, I headed for Elko, Nevada, where my father had resided since 1944. Seven days and 2,500 miles later I arrived. I soon got a night-clerk job at the Stockman's Hotel, and drove a taxicab in the daytime.
Toward the end of autumn I landed a job with the Bell Telephone Company of Nevada. It was the beginning of a long and successful career with the Bell System. I studied and apprenticed in the job of toll-telephone maintenance. In 1951 I obtained an F.C.C. Radiotelephone License, a requirement for those of us who would work on the new Microwave Radio equipment. As it turned out, my entire telephone career coincided with the “Age of Microwave Radio Communications.”
I married Rita Zunino in December of 1950, and over the next few years we had three children: A daughter, Georgina Kaye; a son, James Anthony; and a second son, Glen Alexander.
It was mid-summer of 1955 when I was promoted to a management position, as boss of a crew and responsibility for several microwave-radio and carrier-repeater stations in northeastern Nevada.
On January 1, 1963, I was promoted to the next level of management, a technical staff position with headquarters in Reno. In June we moved to Sparks, Nevada.
In 1966 I was promoted to a third-level management job, as head of the Nevada Plant Manager's staff. From that time on and throughout the remainder of my career I held a variety of assignments in district management jobs in the Plant Department.
I retired from Nevada Bell - concurrent with and directly related to the Federal Government's breakup of the Bell System - on September 16, 1982. My Bell System career had been "often enjoyable, sometimes difficult, always interesting and rewarding."
As of this date [October, 2011] I am actively pursuing my avocations, including but not limited to traveling, photography and writing.
I was born in October, 1927, on the Huckle Hill Farm in Bernardston, Massachusetts, the 10th of eleven children of the Phelps family. I lived on a farm until the age of eight and then we moved to nearby Northfield, a town of about 2,000 residents.
As a lad I delivered newspapers in Northfield. In 1943 I was a bellboy at The Northfield Hotel. The following year I was employed at the IGA Store in East Northfield, where I worked until the middle of October, 1945.
Soon after V-J Day, on November 2, 1945, I signed up for a two year hitch in the U.S. Navy . I was stationed at Bainbridge, Great Lakes, Philadelphia and Norfolk. While at the Great Lakes Naval Center I attended a course in electronics, training that would be very useful in my later career. In January of 1947 I shipped overseas to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There I served as an apprentice aerographer (meteorologist). Honorably discharged from the Regular Navy on October 27, 1947, I remained an inactive member of the Navy Reserve until 1950.
I returned to Northfield and worked as a power company laborer. In March of 1948, driving my 1938 Ford Sedan, I headed for Elko, Nevada, where my father had resided since 1944. Seven days and 2,500 miles later I arrived. I soon got a night-clerk job at the Stockman's Hotel, and drove a taxicab in the daytime.
Toward the end of autumn I landed a job with the Bell Telephone Company of Nevada. It was the beginning of a long and successful career with the Bell System. I studied and apprenticed in the job of toll-telephone maintenance. In 1951 I obtained an F.C.C. Radiotelephone License, a requirement for those of us who would work on the new Microwave Radio equipment. As it turned out, my entire telephone career coincided with the “Age of Microwave Radio Communications.”
I married Rita Zunino in December of 1950, and over the next few years we had three children: A daughter, Georgina Kaye; a son, James Anthony; and a second son, Glen Alexander.
It was mid-summer of 1955 when I was promoted to a management position, as boss of a crew and responsibility for several microwave-radio and carrier-repeater stations in northeastern Nevada.
On January 1, 1963, I was promoted to the next level of management, a technical staff position with headquarters in Reno. In June we moved to Sparks, Nevada.
In 1966 I was promoted to a third-level management job, as head of the Nevada Plant Manager's staff. From that time on and throughout the remainder of my career I held a variety of assignments in district management jobs in the Plant Department.
I retired from Nevada Bell - concurrent with and directly related to the Federal Government's breakup of the Bell System - on September 16, 1982. My Bell System career had been "often enjoyable, sometimes difficult, always interesting and rewarding."
As of this date [October, 2011] I am actively pursuing my avocations, including but not limited to traveling, photography and writing.