When it comes to providing quality service, NITCO is supported by long-term, experienced employees like Plant Superintendent Gary Gray and Project Manager Don Schoenbeck. Both beginning their careers with NITCO in the ‘80s, Gray and Schoenbeck use their decades of experience to provide their teams with the support needed to deliver excellence.
“My big joke to everyone is that I came here when we were a phone company, and now we're an internet company,” Schoenbeck said. “Gary and I got here before we even started putting any fiber in the ground. I've walked and permitted every inch of it. We both know where every inch of it is within and outside the territory, so people come to us with a lot of questions.”
In their current roles, Gray and Schoenbeck oversee NITCO’s projects from start to finish. This includes interacting with government officials on a local and federal level, budgeting project plans, and overseeing their execution.
Over their combined 80 years at NITCO, Gray and Schoenbeck have done everything from working in the warehouse and cutting grass to managing day-to-day operations. Both were brought up under the mentorship of Don Adams, who himself had a nearly 60-year long career with NITCO.
“We’ve had a lot of mentorship throughout our time at NITCO,” Gray said.
“Don Adams was mine and Gary’s boss,” Schoenbeck added. “He was here for 57 years, and he taught us a lot. Even now, we could still call him if we needed help with something.”
That mentorship is something that Gray and Schoenbeck are now in a position to offer to their teams.
“I started in the warehouse on a school work release. Then I started cutting grass, moved into construction, then into installation repair and so on until ultimately ending up as a plant superintendent,” Gray said. “Being familiar with all those departments plays a big role in my process.”
Gray and Schoenbeck have had the opportunity to watch NITCO and their industry at large evolve. From the advent of the internet in the form of dial up to laying the first cables of fiber, the two take a lot of pride in helping NITCO remain a leader in communications.
“You have to be proud when you look at where NITCO was when you started and how you helped evolve it through your own hard labor and efforts,” Gray said
While both Gray and Schoenbeck joined NITCO young in their lives, they knew that they had found their home with the company thanks to the tight-knit culture that recognizes employees for the people they are.
“We’re not just numbers,” Schoenbeck said. “We’ve been family-owned since 1939, and they’ve been very close to us all these years. We’ve known the whole family – from kids to relatives – and they consider us like family.”
As Gray and Schoenbeck look forward to the next great innovation, they never forget the lessons they’ve learned and the experiences they’ve gained thanks to the opportunities NITCO and its leadership have provided.
“Don Adams once said to me, ‘One day, you’re going to wake up and be the adult in the room,’” Schoenbeck said. “Guess what? It’s happened.”
“I can understand where the old-timers were coming from,” Gray added. “Looking back from when we were young to where we are today, it says volumes sitting in the same chair they did when I was a kid.”
To learn more about NITCO, its work, and its career opportunities, visit nitco.com.
