Excellence in Meeting People Needs

Today is the Margie Larson’s birthday. Margie is a great co-worker and fun to work and talk with. Margie sends out our paychecks. Everybody loves Margie.
But Margie’s birthday also symbolizes something else that is important in our company’s history. Margie often pointed out to me that Bob Hookom was hired on her birthday.

And we are the company that we are today because Elmo and Frank gave a job to my favorite Norwegian-American.

Bob started as an apprentice electrician at Willmar Electric in the 1960’s. From there Bob worked his way up and around the leadership of Willmar Electric. When Bob’s career ended at Willmar Electric in 2005 he was what we called our Designer. From a practical sense that meant that Bob did the designing work on the projects where we were a Design-Build contractor. Bob never got an engineering degree but his work was beyond what nearly all engineers do today. Because he had come up through the ranks at Willmar Electric his understanding was superior to many of the people that managed to get a bunch of letters to put after their names.

Bob was very good at what he did. Bob was a great coworker. (If I had a dollar for every time somebody like Dave Sherod told me about how great Bob was and how much they looked up to him I would retire.)

There are no limits to the amount of time people like My Dad and Larry Marcus could spend telling you stories about working with Bob. Any long time coworker of Bob would be able to speak to his excellence. If you had a question about a certain application of electrical work or about the National Electric Code, Bob was your help desk at Willmar Electric. He was an endless resource.

I think that Bob is model for, at least, one of our core values. Meeting our customer’s needs.

Bob had what was described as a photographic memory. If Bob read, saw or heard something he remember it forever. He would file all those memories away and bring them back when the application for that specific memory came back into play. Bob wanted to make sure every customer got exactly what they needed. Like our current designs, Bob’s designs where based on customer needs. Bob set up the model for meeting our customer needs that we continue to promote at Willmar Electric. He didn’t want the customer to get something that they didn’t need nor did he want a customer to have a solution that came up short. (I will admit that I have never asked LaVonne if Bob truly never forgot anything.)

I have no idea who first said it but I am sure that you have heard the phrase “anything worth doing is worth doing right.” Bob Hookom lived his life with that thought in mind. He was never lazy nor did he take short cuts that might leave a customer short changed.

Excellence is the best word I could use to describe Bob. (Although he would likely prefer that I used Norwegian-American.)

Bob did things with excellence and I often recall memories of him when I am doing things and wonder if my actions are to his standard of excellence.

Bob passed away a few years ago and what follows is a tribute to Bob Hookom written by my brother Justin at that time.


A Tribute

Robert (Bob) Hookom began working for Willmar Electric Service on September 24, 1962. On that day Bob, an apprentice electrician, joined Elmo and Frank Chapin as one of the first employees of WES. He was hired because Frank had heard from John Haines he was smart and would make a good electrician. During the month between when he gave his notice to his previous employer and when he started at WES, Frank gave him a few books to read to get him started. Frank anticipated the reading would last at least a few weeks, but Bob finished the books in just a few days. Needless to say, the reports they had heard about Bob’s skills were proved correct time after time.

Bob had an outstanding memory, and this combined with his common sense, helped him to quickly advance in the electrical industry. He first earned is Minnesota Journeyman’s electrical license and then his Master’s electrical license. By the end of his career, he had acquired licenses in over 30 states, an amazing fact given the autonomy of electrical licensing in the United States. As WES grew and clients brought the company to new locations, licenses were never a difficult hurdle. Bob was asked to take the exam and qualify the license and with only one exception he obtained the license; on the ill-fated occasion, the exam was designed so that no one would be able to pass - the local officials did not want outside contractors to come into their area.

Bob was a recognized leader at WES. In the industry he was highly respected in the areas of the National Electric Code (NEC) and electrical contracting. If you needed help understanding code requirements, you only needed to go to Bob to get the accurate interpretation. When a large general contractor needed a class on electrical estimating and construction, Bob was the natural teacher. As apprentices were being trained at WES, the person to do the code instruction was always Bob. Bob’s understanding of electrical construction was amazing!

The NEC was not the only interest in his life. The Norwegian heritage in his family was not something you had to pry out of him; it was very much a part of who he was. The love of his heritage was easily seen in his priorities. Numerous trips to Norway to spend time with family and friends living there, dedication to Sons of Norway and other Norwegian groups were passions in his life. It was always fun to listen to the connections he made while gathering with these friends.

Bob was passionate about music and if you had an office near him you were often reminded of his love of music. He also sang in the church choir at Calvary Lutheran Church for many years. He was passionate about time with family and often was going to events with and for his grandchildren. Bob was passionate about people.

Bob leaves a legacy of lives that he invested in. He will be remembered fondly by Willmar Electric Service and its employees. He was an incredible friend to so many. It is hard to imagine WES without Bob Hookom. He retired in 2001, but continued to work on special projects through the end of 2005.

Willmar Electric has been giving a scholarship to Willmar Senior High graduates that are intending to pursue careers in construction for a number of years. In Bob’s honor we are going to change the name from the Willmar Electric Scholarship to the Bob Hookom Memorial Scholarship. In this small way, we would like to honor Bob’s memory, his dedication to construction, and life-long learning.

Bob Hookom was a wonderful man. Willmar Electric Service counts it a privilege and honor to have had him a member of our team. He will be dearly missed.