50 Years in the Gas Heating Business

Tim McElwain

I recently came to the realization that this June 1 it is 50 years since I left the US Navy on Friday May 31 1966 and on the following Monday went to work at Providence Gas Company in Rhode Island. Wow it seems like just yesterday.

It is actually longer as I really started in the heating industry at 9 years old. After my Dad was killed by a drunk driver his boss hired me to empty 5 trash cans everyday after school at his plumbing and heating supply. My Dad was a contractor and the owner of the plumbing and heating company was trying to help my widowed mother out. He paid me $20.00 a week, that was in 1949- 1950 big money back then. Later at 13 years old he let me ride on the delivery truck on weekends and in the summer go on some installs of boilers and furnaces. When I turned 16 I worked part time as a life guard and also went out with some guys who installed boilers and furnaces and helped them out.

So it has been a long time in this industry.

Steamhead

Congratulations!

STEVEusaPA

I'm sure the next 50 will be even better

Pumpguy

Nice story! What did you do in the Navy?

Tim McElwain

I was a Radarman and also Electronics Technician. I served on two destroyers from 1957 until 1966. I loved visiting the boiler rooms and engine rooms seeing what made the whole floating city function.

Fred

Congratulations, Tim!

Harvey Ramer

Wow, Tim! That's pretty impressive. The things you've seen along the way I guess....

ChrisJ

Tim McElwain said:

I was a Radarman and also Electronics Technician. I served on two destroyers from 1957 until 1966. I loved visiting the boiler rooms and engine rooms seeing what made the whole floating city function.

Hey, we may have something in common.
Most of the equipment I restored was tube.

JUGHNE

Yes Tim, congratulations. That is a notable achievement!

And bless your first generous boss for that $20 per week. That would buy most of the groceries for a family at that time.
In 1959 my widowed mother gave me a dollar a week allowance and it seemed extravagant to me, I couldn't imagine where she had the extra money with 5 kids.

In 1963 a 70 hour week of real work on a farm would get me $35. (But I was fed really well and slept really well....no TV)

Tim McElwain

Chris yes tubes were the thing in those days. I even had tubes on Flame Safeguard equipment early on in the gas industry. We sure have come a long way with controls today.

BobC

I was a tech in the army in the '60's, 95% of the gear I worked on was tube based and built like a tank. We had to improvise for parts sometimes but managed to keep the gear up and humming.

Tim, you have been a Godsend to this industry - we all appreciate what you do.

Bob

GW

Tim congratulations on a long and successful career. Gary

Tim McElwain

Working on electronic equipment on a destroyer at sea with pitching and rolling really prepares you for being a service tech. After that working on equipment in some pretty miserable conditions for the gas company was really nothing.

I will never forget the first time I had to climb the mast and chip ice of the radar antennas. Eighty feet in the air with the ship rolling was always fun.

I have actually experienced "The Perfect Storm" coming out of the Mediterranean we hit two North Atlantic storms on top of one another. We had 80 foot waves breaking over the top of the mast on my ship.

BobC

That kind of a storm must have been a real eye opener on a tin can, was she WWII vintage?

Bob

Robert O'Brien

Thanks for your service to our country,Tim! And congrats on the golden anniversary!

Paul48

I'm not so certain that a ship of modern construction would survive a storm like that. But then again, they were built by mothers and fathers, with the thought of keeping their sons alive. Thank You Tim......You have made a difference!

Mark Eatherton

Robert O'Brien said:

Thanks for your service to our country,Tim! And congrats on the golden anniversary!

And thank you for your contributions to our education system.
ME

hot_rod

Long may you teach, thanks for sharing the stories and knowledge.

Tim McElwain

My first ship was a destroyer named USS McCaffery DD-860 I was on her from 1958 until 1963. I then went into the shipyard for a FRAM conversion (Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization) I transferred in the shipyard to the USS Warrington DD-843 who was also going through FRAM. That was the ship I went through the storm on. Both were WWII vintage. The Warrington eventually went to Vietnam were she hit a mine and was later scrapped.

I never did get shore duty as I had a special job code for Anti-Submarine Warfare. Those years were exciting as we were still in the Cold War and Russia was very active at sea with Electronic Surveillance Trawlers. I was also an air controller and ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) expert.

BobC

Those were tough ships, I remember reading about the line of destroyers and DE's that stood off Japanese heavy cruisers at
he Battle off Samar when our main carrier force went hunting snipes leaving the invasion force exposed

"In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar ”
— Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XII, Leyte"



I was in Korea on an isolated site when that Navy EC121 got shot down in 1969. We stood a lot of overnight watches till things cooled down. It's interesting that I worked on anti sub systems that were used on that aircraft a decade later when we supplied equipment to LORAL.

Bob

Big Ed_4

I bet when you took that first job with the gas company you thought it would just be temporary

Tim McElwain

No I did not think it would be temporary as utilities had a tendency back then to be a very secure job. I started in June 1966 and was told I was permanent the day before Christmas 1966.

So much for that 28 years later in 1994 I was downsized with 30 others all from middle management. That was when my old company Gas Appliance Service (a restaurant service and installation company) became Gas Appliance Service Training and Consulting. Two weeks after I was downsized I went to work with Honeywell as a sub-contractor traveling all over the country teaching their "Source Program" which was teaching everyone how to troubleshoot electric ignition systems. I did that until 1999. During the period back in the 70's I managed to get a degree in business from Johnson and Wales University.

I also became a Born Again Christian in 1970 and in 1984 was ordained a Pentecostal Minister and Pastored a church for 17 years along with operating Gas Appliance Service Training and Consulting.

It has been a very exciting life to say the least. In fact when I asked my wife to marry me in 1959 I told her "I can't promise you much but I can say it will be exciting."

Tim McElwain

Say I really did not plan to say all this, sounds like this is your life!!

BobC

It sounds like a life well lived.

Bob

Jamie Hall

A life well lived, indeed, Reverend. Thank you for all that you have done for us, and continue to do!