Person of the Year 2016 - Tom Stirling
Tom graduated from Parkston High School in the spring of 1969. Prior to graduation a counselor came to school and talked to the graduating class about a new school, Mitchell Area Technical School, that had just opened in the fall of 1968 in Mitchell, SD. He told the class about some of the programs that the school offered. That summer Tom and his parents went to Mitchell to check out the school. He didn’t have a clue what career field he should choose at the time. Farming was the only thing he knew because that was what his family did and even at that time it was awful expensive to get started. However, he did have an Uncle that was working with Northwestern Public Service at the Mitchell power plant. He told him that the electrical industry was an exciting and a rewarding career field to get into. In the fall of 1969 Tom started in the Electrical Construction and Maintenance program and graduated in the spring of 1971. While in school he worked part time and through the summer months with Coates Electric.
After graduation Tom continued working with Coates Electric as an apprentice and then a journeyman. In September, 1978 he took employment at Mitchell Technical Institute (MTI), working as an Instructor in the Electrical Construction and Maintenance (ECM) department teaching many of the electrical construction courses and labs based on the NEC code book. In 1987 Tom became an Electrical Contractor.
Tom taught at MTI for 31 years and was the ECM Department Head for 18 of those years. He has been a member of the SDEC since 1978 and has served as a SDEC Board of Director member.
During those 40 years he has seen many changes in the electrical industry and at MTI. The Institute now offers an AAS degree instead of just a diploma. It has grown in size and now has a new campus. The ECM department has also grown. In 1997 the economy was good and employment need was high in the
electrical industry. The ECM department expanded from two groups of 24 first year students and two groups of 24 second year students for a total of 96 students per year. The ECM department expanded to three groups of 24 students and three groups of 24 second year students for a total of 144 ECM students per year.
In his 31 years at MTI, he had the opportunity and pleasure of working with a total of 2,736 ECM students. Now to be realistic, all did not graduate and some groups were a bit smaller than 24 students, so a more accurate figure would probably be about 2,400 total ECM students. In conclusion, this would not have been possible without the support of our electrical industry through student scholarships, financial and equipment donations made by organizations like the SDEC, Wholesale Electrical suppliers and many electrical contractors and electrical businesses.
Congratulations, Tom!