Clearwater Power

By Lori Mai

Parents often tell their children that they can grow up to be anything they want: an engineer designing spacecraft, a farmer tilling fields, even a poet spinning verse. Dave Wahl become all three.

Space-age Engineer As a young boy, Dave watched his father work as an electrical engineer and decided to follow the same path.

“I liked math, I read a lot about nuclear physics, and I saw what fun these guys were having with their design work, so I ended up studying that, too,” he says.

With an undergraduate degree in elec-trical engineering from Washington State University and a graduate degree from the California Institute of Technology, Dave became an electrical engineer for Boeing in 1964.

“We designed integrated circuits and semiconductors, and we provided research on new technology to the rest of the com-pany,” he says. “We were leading edge.”

Dave worked on many projects in his decade with Boeing, but he secretly hoped to work in its space program. As a WSU student, Dave was an avid reader of science fiction by Ray Bradbury, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.

“I was really into that,” he says. “Sputnik had gone up in 1957, and every-one in this country was dismayed that we were caught flat-footed, so I was hoping to design some space stuff.”

Dave’s wish came true when he became part of a Boeing team called on to design the navigation subsystem for a lunar roving vehicle as part of the Apollo 15 manned lunar mission. Boeing con-tracted with NASA to build the first dune buggy-style lunar vehicle as a way for astronauts to disembark the Apollo lunar module and explore the moon’s surface.

Dave’s team had less than a year to design the navigational subsystem—a

Engineer Unleashes Creative Side With PoetryAfter working for Boeing, and a farming career, Dave Wahl has a lot of stories to tell

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fraction of the time it would normally take to reliably test all of the components.

Everyone was relieved and excited when on July 31, 1971, astronauts James Irwin and David Scott successfully navi-gated the vehicle on the first of three separate excursions totaling 15.7 miles during their 67-hour lunar visit.

“That was a fun project,” Dave says. “I got to do what I’d hoped to do when I was young.”

Return to his Roots By 1974, Dave and his wife, Dorothy, decided to leave the Seattle area and return to their native Palouse country in Idaho. Dorothy grew up in Moscow, and Dave’s family maintained a 1,000 acre wheat farm—originally homesteaded by his grandfather in 1880 and re-established in 1891—near Genesee, where Dave had lived as a child and farmed during sum-mers as a boy with his dad.

“We were tired of the rain, our par-ents were getting older, and we wanted a different environment to raise our two daughters,” Dorothy says. “Home was tugging at us.”

After a decade with Boeing, the fam-ily moved to the Wahl farm to embrace a new challenge of growing wheat, barley and peas.

“Here, the kids had an opportunity to

grow up being with us every day on the farm, so we thought we would try it out,” he says. “And we’ve never regretted it.”

Despite the drastic career change, Dave says many aspects of engineering transferred to farming.

“My dad told me that anything you learn in university, you can apply to farming,” he says. “But going back to farming after Boeing was the steepest learning curve I’ve ever faced.”

Dorothy adds, “He was able to design and build all kinds of things out here, so his engineering skills often came into play. He told our girls he could fix any-thing but a pierced ear.”

Dave suffered a heart attack in 2006, forcing his retirement from farming after 32 years. The Wahls continue to live on the farm, but lease the ground to a neigh-boring family. Recently, the state of Idaho recognized the farm as one of its Century Farms—having been occupied by the same family for more than 100 years.

Poet of the Palouse Reprised One day, shortly before retiring, Dave was looking through an old suitcase full of poems that belonged to his late Uncle Bert Gamble, who was known as the “Poet of the Palouse.” He was searching for a poem to use for his annual Groundhog’s Day card—a Wahl family tradition.

That night, Dave went to sleep. He woke up at 3 a.m. with a poem going through his head about the Lake Missoula floods.

“I got up right away and started writ-ing it down before it got away, and it wasn’t bad,” he says.

That poem led to another poem, and Dave says they soon started coming one after another.

“When I was a kid growing up, we didn’t have television, so my entertain-ment was hearing my dad, my uncles and their friends tell stories,” he says. “So I put those stories into poems, and now my kids will have them in a form that will be easy to remember.”

Dave says he writes “old,” with rhyme and meter that do not necessarily resonate among modern literary scholars. Instead, he takes his poems to cowboy poetry

groups more suited to his style. Dave has published some of his poems

in a variety of ways, including as children’s books; and set to music. He has joined forces with John Rogers, an artist friend, to convey written meaning to his oil portraits.

Such pursuits give Dave a new purpose as he follows in his uncle’s footsteps.

“It’s such a blessing, late in life, to be doing something entirely new and unique from my engineering back-ground,” he says.

Dave says engineers turn a verbal description into an image and then an object, while a poet turns an image into a verbal description.

“My mind works in an entirely differ-ent way from what it did before I started writing poetry, and it’s a treat,” he says. n

This is the poem that woke up Dave Wahl at 3 a.m. The poem was the genesis to his poetry hobby.

ImageryA picture’s worth one thousand words.A graphic’s worth ten thousand score.

A poem depicts, with what you’ve heard,A mental view of this, and more.

Let’s go out to Deception Pass, To emerald sea by rocky shore.

See driftwood scattered here and there;Crimson sunset: azure sky.

The windswept pine atop the hill,Feel the salt spray mist your hair.

Reader, read between the lines.Depict it all in your mind’s eye.

It comes from your own memories.The image will in detail grow.

To view a scene in so few words,Don’t stunt your mind with videos.

Opposite page, Dave Wahl looks through photos of some of the projects he worked on while at Boeing. Above, designing a component on the lunar rover was one of his favorites.

N O V E M B E R 2015 5

Northern Wasco PUD

By Kathy Ursprung

Google is a household name for many people—the first site called on to search answers online—but in Wasco County, the high-tech giant has a more personal face. Staff works directly with local communities and nonprofit organizations.

“Their generosity with science, engineering and technology is preparing our youth for the 21st century workforce,” says Lynette Black, who oversees 4-H programs for Oregon State University/Wasco County Extension.

This kind of training means better workforce opportunities.

“Nine in 10 of the fastest-growing jobs in the United States will require a strong knowledge in math and science,” says

Rebecca Carew at Google, who volunteers with local STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) efforts. “Mentoring students in the community where I live has been a great perk.”

Since planting roots in The Dalles in 2006 with its first data center, Google has become the largest financial contributor to Wasco County government and the county’s fifth-largest private employer, as well as a major philanthropic partner.

With help from Google, students in Wasco County have enhanced opportunities for STEM and computer science education—both at school and through after-school programs. Coding, building robots and working as a team are a few of the things they learn.

“Google is very easy to work with, very supportive of anything that is needed for youth,” Lynette says.

Realistically, she says, Wasco County would not have robotics programs such as the First Tech Challenge and First

Lego League without Google. In-school, after-school and summer programs serve about 1,700 young people in Wasco County.

“We’ve been doing this now for so long, that some of the kids there now are mentors for younger kids because they are so good at this,” Lynette says.

Without Google, local schools and programs could not afford the technology required to run these programs, she adds.

“It’s extremely expensive to run STEM programming,” Lynette says. “You know how fast technology is changing. It’s constantly changing, and that requires us to buy new things, new technology.”

With Google support, The Dalles Middle School hosted one of many First Tech Challenge qualifying tournaments in the state. Out of 186 teams statewide, 23 teams competed in The Dalles, and eight teams moved on to compete at the Oregon super-qualifier tournament.

The Bazinga Bots—a team from The

Giving With a Capital GInternet giant offers a local personal touch

Google employees volunteer at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore during GoogleServe, a two-week service period sponsored by the company.Photos courtesy of Google

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Dalles—was one of 72 teams from 12 states that qualified for the Western regional tournament in Oakland, California, in March.

In addition to work with programs such as 4-H and Girls Inc., Google has given more than $300,000 to North Wasco County School District for STEM and computer science programs. But it has given more than just money, says District Superintendent Candy Armstrong.

“Google, over time in partnership with the district, has really offered us three things: their time, their resources and their talent,” Candy says. “They’ve helped in terms of our infrastructure. They’ve offered workers to come out and work with us. They’ve offered us resources to get infrastructure in place throughout the district. They’re a partner at the table as we try to work on STEM projects that are going on.”

Outside the classroom, hundreds of middle school and high school students worked in teams to build wind turbines during Student Wind Challenge—an event put on through a partnership between Google and Columbia Gorge Community College.

“Volunteering at the Wind Challenge was inspiring,” says Dave Karlson of Google. “Some kids started the day feeling ambivalent about science and ended the day cheering as their turbine beat the competition.”

Google has given $9 million to philanthropic causes in Oregon since 2008, and their employees have donated thousands of hours to help nonprofits and tutor students.

Each year, Google encourages employees to give back to their local communities during a two-week period called GoogleServe. Employees also are given 20 hours of work time each year to volunteer at charitable organizations.

Since most Google employees live in The Dalles or the greater Columbia Gorge, their volunteer hours often go to local organizations. Home at Last Humane Society, The Dalles Dam Visitor Center, Wasco County Master Gardener Association and the Celilo Cancer Center are among those that have benefitted.

During this year’s GoogleServe, Google employees helped the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in The Dalles clean out its 10,000-square-foot warehouse. They volunteered at the Columbia Gorge

Discovery Center, helping landscape under the new solar pavilion and repairing raptor enclosures.

Local organizations also receive financial support from Google.

Awards in 2015 included:• $60,000 to Oregon Robotics

Tournament and Outreach Program.• $21,690 to Wasco County Library

Service District.• $12,510 to Columbia Gorge Ecology

Institute.• $10,000 to Girls Inc.• $8,715 to Columbia Cascade

Housing Corporation.• $1,000 to Colonel Wright

Elementary School.• $11,786 to Wasco County 4-H.• $5,000 to Mosier schools.• $10,000 to Gorge Technology

Alliance for robotics.Since arriving in The Dalles, Google

also has invested $366,000 in bringing free Wi-Fi to downtown The Dalles and other areas of the city.

“I feel good about working here because we do give back in a thoughtful and sustained way,” says Google employee Tria Bullard. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I like being a part of that.” n

A team of girls builds a wind turbine during the Student Wind Challenge hosted by Google and Columbia Gorge Community College.

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Nespelem Valley

By Vic Bobb

When Laura McClure retired after more than three decades’ of service to Nespelem Valley Electric Cooperative’s member-owners, the board of trustees launched a nationwide search for the co-op’s next general manager.

The process lasted more than a year and drew responses from every part of the country, but failed to identify the right person for the job.

It turns out formal and organized efforts are not always the only answer.After the search had failed, acting General Manager Doug Adams—who expected his time in Nespelem to be

measured in months, not more than a year—thought of a man qualified in temperament, education and experience to take over the reins at NVEC.

The right person for the job turned out to be not from across the continent, but from right across the back fence. Dan Simpson came to Nespelem from Okanogan PUD—so near that NVEC and PUD lines crisscross in the area around St Mary’s Mission and Paschal Sherman Indian School.

Dan, who started his new position at Nespelem on September 8, had not considered applying for the job until Doug—his boss during Dan’s nine years at Okanogan PUD—approached him

Introducing the New Man in TownNespelem Valley Electric General Manager Dan Simpson discusses the upcoming annual meeting with accounting representative Renee Tillman.

Dan Simpson brings engineering and operations experience to NVEC’s top management position

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and suggested that his years of engineer-ing experience with Eastern Washington utilities would transfer well into the leadership role open at NVEC.

Given Doug’s encouragement and conversations about the challenges fac-ing Nespelem and its next leader, Dan says he realized he could succeed at the state’s smallest electric cooperative.

With experience in engineering and operations, Dan is well suited to the broad-scope leadership called for when so many things must be done by so small a team of workers.

Dan is rooted in the area, having grown up on an orchard in Manson. He went to work at Okanogan after four years in Dayton with Columbia REA because he wanted to be back in home territory.

Passionate about electricity from childhood, he went directly from high school to ITT Technical Institute, emerging in 1998 with a bachelor’s in electronic engineering.

Dan’s plan to join the NVEC family was announced early in August—just about the time some of the worst wild-fires in Washington’s history were mak-ing their way into the lives of co-op members. By his first day in the office, nearly 100 NVEC poles had been destroyed in the inferno, and more than 200 cooperative members had their electric service interrupted.

As it happened, Dan’s time at Okanogan provided some unexpected guidance in responding to the fiery emergencies of 2015.

“Last year, we learned a lot from the Carlton Complex fire,” he says, referring to a series of wildfires that were at the time the most extensive in Washington history—an unfortunate distinction that was, even more unfortunately, surpassed by this summer’s seemingly unending flames. “We had our crews working 17-hour days instead of 18. The fires last year taught us that there’s a huge differ-ence between having six hours of rest and having seven hours. That one hour

makes a dramatic difference.” Nespelem’s line crews worked

17-hour shifts for more than a week, concentrating primarily on the circuit that serves the area from the Mission to Disautel Pass. By late September, all the destroyed and damaged poles had been replaced.

“The crews did great work,” Dan says, noting that Line Superintendent Bob Poch has stayed nearly a year past his scheduled retirement to help ensure the the transition to new leadership is as trouble-free as possible.

Dan says all the staff have been a treat to work with and have made him feel welcome.

“The people here have made the tran-sition very smooth,” he says.

Although Dan is a lifelong outdoors-man, he finds that he is getting into the field for hunting and fishing a good deal less than usual these days, and it is not difficult to understand why. He spends a great deal of time studying.

Even as his career has flourished, he is committed to continuing his educa-tion. Dan is working toward a master’s degree in electrical power engineering from Washington State University.

“It’s an excellent program,” Dan says, “a kind of cross between an MBA and a

master’s in science.” According to the university’s web-

site, the goal is to produce graduates who have both a thorough knowledge of the electric power system and the professional skills needed to advance in both technical and management careers within the industry.

With nearly 15 years of hands-on experience with Columbia REA and Okanogan PUD, extensive work with Cisco routers and firewalls, knowledge of supervisory control and data acqui-sition equipment and software, and of advanced metering infrastructure sys-tems, Dan has a pretty good running start at master’s level knowledge.

But he says there is always more to learn.

“It’s interesting,” Dan says of his online coursework and webcam exams. “Demanding, but interesting.”

There is no telling where his studies will take him, but one thing is certain: From his first day on the job, Dan has devoted all his skill, experience, educa-tion, common sense and energy to mak-ing sure NVEC members continue to enjoy the reliable and affordable electric service they have relied on since the first transmittion along the co-op’s 34 miles of line in 1941. n

Dan brings several years of experience from Okanogan PUD to the general manager position.

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Douglas Electric

By Craig Reed

In the midst of the forest, sit-ting quietly in camouflage clothing, Kelly Heard listens to the sounds of the woods. Birds are chirping, chip-munks scamper and squeak, and pine cones plop from overhead branches.

While patiently waiting, Kelly hopes to hear the hoof steps of advancing deer or elk

or the padding of a bear.While the 56-year-old

Lookingglass resident enjoys the big picture of the wild outdoors, she also has tags in her pocket she would like to fill. In turn, a tagged big game animal would help fill the freezer at home.

“For me, hunting is where I feel the most at peace,” Kelly says. “When I’m out there, I feel I’m where I

belong. “I love all the Kodak

moments. They have noth-ing to do with the killing of animals, that’s just icing on the cake when it comes to hunting.”

She and husband Rex, also an avid hunter, love to share those special moments after each day of hunting.

To add to the challenge of the hunt, 11 years ago

Kelly switched to using a bow instead of a rifle. She prefers the mild tempera-tures of the bow season dur-ing September, and she likes the closer encounters a bow hunter gets with wildlife.

“It’s more primitive,” she says. “It’s more challenging. Hunting elk with a bow is just about the ultimate as far as an adrenalin rush. To be that close to an animal, you can be

On the Hunt for Big GameKelly Heard prefers to hunt with bow and arrow for a closer encounter with wildlife

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to the point of being noodled kneed.”

Kelly has been an out-doors person since going bird hunting and fishing with her father, Bobby Gatlin, as a grade school kid. She took and passed the hunters edu-cation course at age 12 and has bought hunting tags since then.

She has filled a few tags through the years with her rifle. Her success then dropped some when she started carrying a bow into the field. But she has taken a blacktail buck, an antelope, turkey and grouse with her bow. She is still patiently wait-ing to fill an elk tag.

That almost happened on her first bow hunt. She walked for about 30 minutes out of an Eastern Oregon hunting camp and crossed paths with a six-point bull elk. Kelly went to full draw on her bow at about 25 yards from the ani-mal, but she did not release the arrow because some brush was in the way.

Instead of stepping forward

and giving the shooter a clear shot, the elk turned straight away and quickly disappeared.

While being outdoors and trying to fill hunting tags, Kelly also wants to be an inspiration to other women.

“I hope to be an encourage-ment to other women to get out there,” she says. “Even if you don’t hunt, just get out there and enjoy God’s cre-ation. It’s truly amazing.”

The couple’s two daughters and one son are also hunters.

“The biggest thing we encourage people to do is to find the Kodak moment,” says Rex. “You may not get any-thing, but if you look hard, you’ll find such a moment. That’s what we then share at the end of the day.”

While the Heards do most of their hunting in Douglas County for blacktail deer, elk and bear, and in Eastern Oregon for mule deer, ante-lope and elk, Kelly has been fortunate enough to make three international trips.

In 2006, she filled one of the items on her hunting

bucket list on a trip to New Zealand to hunt red stag.

The hunt was possible because Rex, while attending a Southern California trade show, entered his wife’s name in a drawing for a red stag hunt. A week after the show, Kelly received a phone call and learned her name had been drawn for the hunt.

She did not believe the caller initially and hung up on him, thinking Rex was playing a trick. After Rex explained he had put her name in a raffle, she called the number back, apologized for being rude and said she was ready to go.

With a guide, she hunted the steep mountains of New Zealand with her bow for four days. She saw stags, but none were close enough for a bow shot. On the fifth day, she switched to her rifle. She took a bull with 26 total points with one shot from 175 yards.

“It was awesome, I rec-ommend it to anybody who hunts,” Kelly says. “The country is beautiful, and the people were so friendly and accommodating.”

In 2008, another hunt-ing item came off her bucket list. Kelly and Rex drove 27 hours to Dease Lake in the northwest corner of British Columbia. They took a float plane to another series of lakes, and with a guide went looking for a moose.

For four days, Kelly carried her bow, but again did not get close enough for a shot. On the fifth day, she switched to her rifle and dropped a bull with two shots from 90 yards.

“That bull was coming in on a string, so if I had had my

bow, I probably would have had a shot,” Kelly says.

“That was probably one of my most favorite hunting experiences,” Rex says. “To see her standing there with a moose coming right at her, seeing her get that moose, was special.”

Kelly’s last extended hunt-ing trip was in 2013 when both she and Rex bought tags to hunt caribou in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

“We were in the middle of God’s country,” she says.

Hunting with a guide, they saw only one caribou the first four days. Then they got word the caribou migration was going on elsewhere, so they changed locations. They climbed a mountain in knee-deep snow before both got shots with their rifles, each dropping a caribou.

On both the British Columbia and Yukon hunts, the couple had to camp and hunt in and around grizzly bears. Both the hunters and bears maintained a reasonable distance, but the bears’ pres-ence added to the adventure.

Back home, Kelly went through the 2015 elk season without filling her bow hunt-ing tag. She was disappointed but also inspired.

“More than anything, it drives me year after year to keep working at it,” she says. “But I enjoy the whole experience.

“I’m out in nature so much, obviously, because I’m such a poor elk hunter,” she says with a laugh.

Getting serious again, she says, “It’ll happen one of these years.” n

Opposite page, Kelly with the bull moose she took in 2008 in British Columbia. Above, Kelly took this antelope in Lake County, Oregon in 2014 with her bow.Photos courtesy of Rex Heard

N O V E M B E R 2015 5

Central Electric

By Courtney Linville

In today’s world, it is almost unheard of to stay at one com-pany for more than five years, let alone 25 to 38 years.

For a handful of Central Electric Cooperative employ-ees, this is exactly what happened.

Whether looking for bet-ter work to support growing families or taking part-time work right out of high school, these men and women and their extensive experience are a part of the fabric of the cooperative. Combined, eight veteran employees have more than 275 years of CEC knowl-edge and experience.

Early BeginningsWhen talking to the “old-timers” at CEC, they get big smiles on their faces when discussing how they got started. One pair started on the same day and in the same positions in 1977.

Tom Burke, serviceman, and Dave Putnam, senior meter and relay tech, began as hole-diggers.

“CEC was booming and I came to work looking for better pay and benefits like everyone else back in those days,” says Putnam.

Putnam worked in a local shop in Redmond and had a two-year college degree in technologies. He says in those days jobs such as running a jack-hammer were no different than life as a kid on the ranch,

doing what needed to be done.“When I came here I kept

asking the guy I started dig-ging holes with ‘do we get paid to go out and travel around the country, have a picnic lunch and dig these holes?’” says Burke. “I asked, ‘When do I start?’”

Burke had worked eight-hour shifts at the local mill starting at 4 a.m., and then went to work on his ranch.

“Anyone who used to

complain, I’d say you need eight years at the mill and you’d appreciate your job,” Burke says. “I have always appreciated my work and the job at Central Electric.”

A few teenagers started working at CEC during sum-mer breaks. Little did they know, they would turn sum-mer employment into a career.

Serviceman Todd Fehrenbacher started at the cooperative at age 18,

sweeping warehouse floors. “It was a summer job

between my first year and second year of college,” he says. “I would help crews load and unload (trucks), and I remember spending a lot of time sorting bolts.”

Changing TechnologyWhile the basic principles of supplying power and serv-ing members have remained the same, the technology and equipment required has seen drastic changes.

Judy Barnes, senior distri-bution engineer, laughs as she recalls how it was a big deal when the company trucks got air conditioning.

“We didn’t have that in our first pickups,” she says with

CEC Employees Stand the Test of TimeStaff longevity is a testament to the working environment at the cooperative

Central Electric Cooperative celebrates its employees who have been with the cooperatives for more than 25 years. From left, Greg Rompel, business info analyst; Jim Blaylock, GIS technician; Dave Putnam, senior meter and relay tech; Judy Barnes, senior distribution engineer; Dan Dingman, supervisor of engineering services.

Tom Burke Randy Amis Todd Fehrenbacher

4 N O V E M B E R 2015

a chuckle. “I guess they were afraid we would sit in the trucks and not do anything.”

Judy remembers carrying a bag phone versus today’s smartphones. Let’s not forget the early advent of personal computers in the workplace.

Greg Rompel, business information analyst, shakes his head when thinking about the early computers at CEC.

“When I came to work here, they just had basic ter-minals for the main computer system,” he says. “The office manager bought the first per-sonal computer, an IBM PC Junior. That was a revolution.”

In those early days, there was no IT department at CEC. That changed as more departments started express-ing their need for computers.

“When I came to CEC as an engineering assistant, every-thing was hand drawn and large drawings were copied with a blueprint machine,” says Jim Blaylock, geographic infor-mation systems technician.

“We mapped all of our facilities to build a computer database of our system so we could produce maps that can be printed,” says Blaylock. “Now, everyone can see the entire electric system as a map on their computer and query the information they need. We also make operational safety maps and many other useful maps.”

Technology has advanced to the point where employees now have all the information they need at their fingertips on a tablet or phone.

Other changes have occurred in the meters that track power use. Putnam

recalls working on meters that had rotating disks and gear registers.

“They were more mechani-cal and now we have elec-tronic meters with no moving parts,” he says.

They are read remotely rather than by meter read-ers driving to each home and business.

How have things changed in the field? Ladder trucks and boom trucks are more advanced today than they were 40 to 50 years ago, but the premise is still the same. Bigger changes are at sub-stations and in transformer cabinets where analog systems have been replaced by circuit boards and microchips.

“Switches were energized manually and you pushed a tab in to close the breakers,” Burke says.

Crews now have better tools to detect line faults.

“We have equipment we can test through a whole bunch of transformers and wire today,” says Burke. “Before, you had none. You plugged a fuse in and waited for it to blow. Then you might pick up another fault in between. But each time you did that it caused problems on the wire. Today, we can test that and it makes it easier on

the wire. People might have a blink in the power, but it helps to keep outages down.”

Favorite MemoryWith so many years on the job, here are some of these veterans’ favorite memories.

Tom Burke (38 years): “Two come to mind. We had a fun job in Paulina where two crews stayed in a cabin, a few brought trailers and we built 11 miles of new 3-phase line in 4.5 days. They were long days working with plenty of hours, but it was a real fun job. The other was building a brand new substation in Black Butte. We had to cut down and haul trees out to Redmond. We donated the firewood. What’s amazing is we started from a regular forest plot and built a substation from there.”

Dave Putnam (38 years): “The challenging work and the people I have worked with over the years. There are many things we have done as employees as well as a com-pany. I have enjoyed being a part of making floats, walking in parades and working on the safety trailer.”

Randy Amis, service rep-resentative (37 years): “When we were helping Midstate Electric in a bad snowstorm. Bryce Barry and I had a

Midstate lineman in the truck with us. I was driving the snowcat and we had to cross the Deschutes River. I remem-ber the Midstate guy saying just go right into the river, we’d be OK. It was dark and water was running into the doors of the cat. I was sure happy to get out to the other side. Once I did it, it was fun.”

Jim Blaylock (36 years): “The really quality people that I’ve worked with have always been inspiring. I have been part of a larger family here and we have all shared so much as we have raised our individual families.”

Greg Rompel (34 years): “Some of the best memories I have were when the coop-erative supported a Hood to Coast run team. Central Electric did that for six years. It brought a lot of people together for a common goal.”

Judy Barnes (29 years): “The generosity of employ-ees can be overwhelming for all kinds of occasions. People really do care about each other and help each other out and celebrate with each other.”

Dan Dingman, supervisor of engineering services (29 years): “I liked the old com-pany picnics and volleyball tournaments we used to have. It was an all-day event for employees and their families, with great food and games. It was just a great way to get together and have fun.”

Todd Fehrenbacher (26 years): “For me, it’s the people I started with at the coopera-tive. It’s the people that taught me everything I know today. The people I work with past and present.” n

“When I came to work here, they just had basic terminals for the main computer system. The office manager bought the first personal computer, an IBM PC Junior.”

—Greg Rompel

N O V E M B E R 2015 5

By Dianna Troyer

While shooting a fireworks show, Roger Davis wondered why his fellow fire-fighter kept slapping him on his back a little too hard.

Roger yelled to be heard above the noise.

“I asked him why he kept doing that,” says Roger, chief of the Rupert Fire Department for the past five years. “He told me that I was on fire.”

Unbeknownst to Roger, a drifting ember had landed on his back. It ignited and began burning and melting away

his protective coat’s strip of wide silver reflective tape.

“It can be dangerous shooting a fire-works show, so we follow strict safety precautions,” Roger says. “At the same time, it’s a rewarding community service and fun to hear the crowd’s reaction. Thousands of people come to watch our Fourth of July show.”

A few blocks from the town square in front of the firehouse, 18 firefight-ers help stage two annual fireworks shows—one on the Fourth of July and the other the day after Thanksgiving to celebrate Santa’s arrival and the start of

A Biannual Blast in Rupert

United Electric

Rupert firefighters labor long hours to shoot two annual fireworks shows

Crowds gather at Rupert’s town square to watch fireworks fill the sky above the historic Wilson Theatre.Photos courtesy of Warren Yadon

4 N O V E M B E R 2015

the Christmas holiday season.“The downtown’s a great place to

shoot a show because the buildings magnify the booming sounds,” he says. “Sometimes the reverberations are so intense that car alarms are set off. To get extra height for some rounds, we shoot from certain rooftops.”

Before shooting a show, firefighters work for hours during a couple of days to get ready, knowing their labor of love will go up in smoke and vanish in about 20 minutes.

“We keep the show to about 20 min-utes because that’s about the length of time people can look up without get-ting a sore neck,” Roger says. “Our November show is about five minutes shorter than the July show because of the weather. People don’t want to stay out too long in the cold. One year, big snowflakes were falling and drifting around. It was really neat and one of our most memorable shows.”

Firefighters never know what will happen each year.

“One year, a spark from a round landed in the grand finale, so those rounds went off prematurely and all at once because the fuses are linked together,” recalls Roger, who has worked for the department since 1991. “Since then, we’ve made sure to put foil over the grand finale rounds so that won’t

happen again.”Another year, winds were so gusty

during the day that Roger almost can-celled the show.

“I monitored the weather all day,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to be the bad guy and cancel. But for safety reasons, you can’t shoot a show if winds exceed 30 miles an hour. There’s too much dan-ger from burning and drifting embers. Luckily, once the sun went down, the winds calmed, so the show went on like usual.”

To learn to shoot a show, Roger and other firefighters received training from fireworks vendors and previous firefighters.

A few days before the show, they unpack boxes of fireworks. They carefully check hundreds of rounds with exotic names such as fan-shaped coconut tree, green flashing mums or shaped silver to red tail.

“We throw about 900 shots of 21/2-inch rounds for the July show and a little less in November,” Roger says. “We pick dif-ferent types of rounds every year because we don’t want people to say the show was just like last year.”

Besides inspecting each round, they clean out singed paper and other debris from mortar racks lined with tubes in which the fireworks are inserted.

On the day of the show, they cordon

off several blocks around the fire station and set out the loaded racks.

“We have four rows of racks and stag-ger firefighters in diagonal lines at each row to light the rounds,” Roger says.

During the show, firefighters wear their old sooty protective clothing.

“It’s dirty and hot, so we don’t wear our newest turnout gear,” he says.

While shooting the show, Roger listens to the crowd’s reaction.

“The crowd lets you know what they like, so when I hear applause or a lot of oohs and aahs, I’ll tear the label off that particular one as a reminder to reorder for next year,” he says.

While some firefighters are shooting the rounds, others are stationed on roof-tops and in alleys to watch for drifting embers.

“They have weed sprayers filled with water to douse any embers,” Roger says.

When the show ends, Roger hopes the crowd is satisfied.

“We want people to leave feeling like they haven’t seen anything like that before,” Roger says. “We want them to wonder what we’ll throw next year.” n

Volunteer firefighter Lendon Moss, his son Ryker, and his fiance ,Tonya Judd, enjoy Fourth of July festivities.

Fire Chief Roger Davis unpacks boxes of fireworks.Photo by Dianna Troyer

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Tillamook PUD

Commercial Fishing From Tillamook Bay

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By Denise Porter

The boats sway gently and bump lazily against the dock. It is a clear, crisp fall morning and the tide is slack.

Aboard the 38-foot W.B., boat owner and captain Bob Browning unfastens tuna fishing apparatus from the sides of the boat, putting it away until next season. Behind him, the large, white wooden and iconic Garibaldi “G” promi-nently sits on the hillside, visually mark-ing both the town and Bob’s home port.

“Fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world,” Bob, 48, muses. “Part of that may be some of the reason you do it. You have to be a bit of an adrena-line junky to enjoy a bit of that thrill of danger.”

He stares straight ahead and adds, “But you have to learn to control that thrill, make it work for you.”

For a decade, Bob has made his liv-ing exclusively as a commercial fisher-man. At the moment it is the beginning of the commercial fleet’s quiet time: two months of respite before the Oregon crabbing season begins December 1.

Sport and guide fishing boats dot the bay. The W.B.—named after the boat maker’s father, Windle B. Fisher—stays in port while Bob spends time with his family: wife Nancy, son Logan, 20, and daughter Taylor, 17.

This year, Logan trained as the fourth generation Browning fisherman.

“I took him tuna fishing when he was 8,” says Bob. “He’s like me. He grew up on a boat. He’s doing very well.”

Bob’s Tillamook County roots run a little deeper than his fishing roots, but not by much. His grandfather, Rollin Browning, was born on Bob’s great-grandfather’s homestead on the Nestucca River. He built “a logging empire” before trying his hand at fishing in his middle 50s.

Bob’s father, Joe, spent considerable time dory fishing in Pacific City before eventually moving to Garibaldi and into the commercial fishing business.

Bob grew up on Joe’s boat and worked every summer of his teenage years fishing for either his father or another captain.

Joe still fishes. Bob’s brother, Scott, owns a boat, too.

“The main thing I like about fishing is that it’s all about hard work,” says Bob. “The harder you work, the more money you can make. I mean, obviously, there are seasonal and weather challenges, but the guy who works the hardest still can make the most money.”

The hours can be long—Bob has spent as many as 11 straight days at sea and has worked 52 hours without sleep—but the benefits are many, he says. Time off, working his own schedule and being out-side are all job perks.

Today, Bob serves as a commissioner for the Port of Garibaldi. He says he took on the leadership position because he

cares greatly about the future of Tillamook Bay. He wants his family and other gener-ational families who have fished from this port to be able to in the future.

“It’s definitely a family thing—a roots thing, and for multiple families,” he says.

Bob says the Tillamook Bay is a unique, small port.

“When I was a kid, it was all commer-cial,” he says. “Now, it needs to be half commercial and half sport. And we’d like to see it expand on both sides.

“When I bought the W.B., I was one of the youngest owners—at age 38. And I was one of the most senior captains. It’s changing now, and I see younger guys coming back.”

The daughter of a retired dairy farmer and, his wife, Nancy, understands that during certain months her husband will work long hours to make ends meet.

“Sometimes I crawl into bed next to her and she’s already asleep and then I leave before she’s up,” he says. “If it wasn’t for her, I couldn’t do what I needed to do. She takes care of me.”

Bob remembers the day he discovered he loved fishing. He was 5, trolling for salmon on his father’s boat. It was night-time; the sea was calm and Bob stood at the side of the boat, fishing with a pole.

“I caught a starry flounder,” he says. “We put it on ice and when we docked, we sold it. I got a quarter for it. I remem-ber thinking, ‘I can get paid to fish. The world’s perfect.’”

It took Bob a while to decide to become a boat owner and captain.

“I went away for eight years and became a contractor,” he says. “I couldn’t stay away. I came back to it. At first it was ‘just for a few months in the winter,’ you know, for the money.”

Soon, the ocean beckoned and a decade ago Bob purchased the W.B. and heeded the call.

“It’s a way of life,” says Bob. “I love the ocean. People say saltwater runs in your veins. I get paid to do what I love. I feel bad for all my friends that work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.” n

Oregon Crab Season Begins in DecemberBob Browning fishes for salmon, tuna and ling cod, in addition to crab. His year begins December 1 with the commercial crab season.

Oregon limits the number of commercial crab permits and how many pots each boat can carry. However, Oregon’s commercial crabbing fishermen have no limit on the total pounds of crab they can catch.

While crab season ends August 14, the bulk of the crab catch occurs in December.

The W.B., a mid-sized boat, can use 300 pots at a time, but can only carry up to 70. Bob pays a larger boat to help haul his baited pots across the bar and drop them into the ocean at the start of the crab season.

When he gauges pots to be full, he lifts them from the ocean floor, dumps the crab into the boat’s holding tank, returns the crab pot to the ocean and sells his bounty to the port retailers.

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Tanner Electric

By SJ Cammon

Forty-seven-year-old Martin Schuler is regularly seen with his 30-pound backpack, trekking up the steep Riviera Marina Hill on the east side of Anderson Island.

One non-stop trip up the hill is enough to leave most people breath-less and sweaty with wobbly legs and a pounding heart. Martin makes this trip 15 to 20 times in a row, culminating in an elevation rise of 1,785 to 2,380 feet. He times himself each repetition, always pushing to improve his endurance and stamina.

Martin is in training—and has been for the past six years. His ultimate goal is to summit Mount Rainier. It is a lofty goal for a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury.

It was six years ago that Mara Drummond came across a severe auto accident on her commute home. Mara, a Maryland native, was an EMT while working a temporary assignment in Auburn. Within seconds, she was out of her car to help.

After quickly sizing up the scene, Mara climbed into the wreck from the broken rear window to help the unconscious and severely injured man. She held his head to keep the airway open and directed bystanders to help until emergency services arrived.

Martin credits Mara for saving his life. Mara says she had doubts about Martin’s chances

of survival. She watched as Martin was transported by ambulance from the scene, eventually being air-lifted to Harborview Medical center in Seattle.

More than eight weeks later, Martin roused from a coma. Not only did he have extensive bone injuries to his face, jaw, ribs, neck, knee and back, the TBI forced him to retrain his body, brain and nerves to

live normally. When Martin finally understood the extent of his injuries, he thought his life was over, he says. His instincts and formidable spirit made him persevere.

“I love the mountains,” says Martin. “And it is my goal to become the greatest mountain climber in the world with a TBI. I am slower than an able-bodied person, but the one thing nobody can mea-sure is my desire. I don’t quit.

“Me and my cousin Dan and my sister Michelle created this club when we were kids called The No Quitters Club. I remember lying in my hospital bed thinking to myself, ‘You can’t quit trying to live.’

“I have three boys who keep me motivated. My sister would come to my hospital every night after work and tell me, ‘Martin, if you can’t quit try-ing to live. Remember you started the No Quitters Club and you can’t quit the club!’ ”

Martin spent 2010 learning to walk again. He endured surgeries to rebuild his face, procedures to

An Indomitable SpiritOnce near death after an auto accident, Martin Schuler endured pain and multiple surgeries to become a mountaineer

Martin Schuler, left, and his guide Jared Smith, atop Mount St. Helens.

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relieve pain, a multitude of doctoring and special-ists to cover his many injuries.

By 2013, Martin made his first mountain climb, Mount Hood. He missed the summit of this 11,240-foot peak by a mere 340 vertical feet—Martin turned back due to warming weather that made conditions unsafe.

The same year, Martin attempted Mount St. Helens and Mount Shasta. Again he was turned back not far from reaching the summits due to sudden and severe weather conditions common at such extreme elevations. Mount St. Helens was struck by a whiteout blizzard in early June. On Mount Shasta, warming weather caused melting snow and ice chunks to break off. Martin was hit by an ice chunk that damaged a knee, causing him to take time for rehabilitation.

After his knee recovered, Martin tried Mount St. Helens again, reaching his first summit after a grueling 15 hours and 20 minutes. His guide, Jared Smith, encouraged him every step of the way, and Martin’s confidence grew.

“I’m starting hardcore training now.” Martin says. “Having a TBI creates a potential risk for me as well as the guides. My balance is not as good as an able-bodied person. I see that being my single biggest obstacle.”

Mount Rainier is a rigorous climb—the toughest in the lower 48 states—with a glacier and ice fields to tackle. Weather conditions on any high moun-tain can vary wildly within minutes.

Since his first climb in 2013, Martin has made seven climbs, reaching a total cumulative elevation

of 79,844 feet. His most recent climb and summit of Mount Adams at 12,276 feet in August was near the sixth anniversary of his accident.

Martin trains on Anderson Island. Besides trek-king up the marina hill, he works out at the small island fitness center in the historic old schoolhouse known as “Wide Awake Hollow.” He has scheduled three more climbs in 2016.

Mara and Martin keep in touch.Mara believes in Martin. “I was only the first link in a very long chain to

help Martin survive,” Mara says. “Now he’s climbing mountains!”

“It might not be this year, but he will do it, and I want to be there to see him off when he does,” Mara continues.

Why does Martin do it? He says the deep sense of satisfaction and intense challenge of mountain-eering is indescribable. He wants to show his boys what a person can do with the right attitude. Never quit. n

Martin is compiling his experiences for a book “From Near-Death to the Top of the World.” His blog at http://extrememountain-climbing.blogspot.com details his thoughts, adventures and inspirations.

Above, Martin mixes weight training with cardio in preparation for his next climb. Right, Wendy Field and Martin outside the local fitness center where Martin trains.

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