W.H. Holland doesn’t much care for the limelight. But there is one type of light that thrills him, namely the household lighting that he and his fellow Community Electric linemen restore following outages and other disruptions.
Now 40 years into his CEC career – he reached the milestone in early March – the CEC serviceman exudes pride and appreciation when talking about the role that he has filled for so many years.
“The most satisfaction I get definitely is when you get someone’s lights on in a storm, whether it’s icy or hot weather or whatever. You see people in their yard, cheering you and giving you the thumb’s up. They’ll ask, ‘Can I get you coffee or something to eat?’ They’re the ones in dire need of electricity, and it’s amazing to see their willingness to give when they’re in that position. They should be on the receiving end, and they’re on the giving end.”
A native of Isle of Wight County, Holland joined Community Electric in 1986 when he was looking for a good-paying job in the early years of his marriage that didn’t require a lengthy commute. He started as a ground worker clearing right of way for CEC’s distribution system, and within a year transitioned into an apprentice lineman role. Over the next few years, he earned and learned his way into journeyman lineman status before becoming lead lineman in charge of a construction crew. About 20 years ago, he transitioned into the serviceman role he holds now, largely answering service calls himself to free the construction crews from the work that they need multiple linemen to tackle.
Management opportunities that came along didn’t really interest him, Holland says, preferring to work outside in different environments and traveling to other parts of the country to provide mutual aid to other cooperatives where extreme weather caused major damage to electrical infrastructure.
He cites Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as two of the more catastrophic storms that he and other linemen responded to under electric cooperatives’ principle of leading mutual assistance.
“It is a demanding job, and a lot of people don’t realize it’s not a 9-to-5 thing where you get to go home. But I have always gotten satisfaction out of helping people get their lights restored and assisting other co-ops when they need help,” he says.
The satisfaction that Holland feels in uplifting others has made him something of a community legend over the years. He has drawn a host of a compliments and words of thanks for pulling cars out of ditches, arriving first on the scene to call first responders, and other actions of assistance.
He also is renowned for his barbequing expertise, as evidenced by the first-place award he won in 2018 at the “Gaff N Grill” competition held each spring near Richmond in conjunction with the “Gaff N Go Rodeo” that draws linemen from across the United States for two days of competition on line worker tasks like pole climbing, insulator change-outs and more. His passion for grilling later led him to build a reverse-flow smoker, more than 15 feet long, directly onto a trailer for ease of transport. With that smoker and others, he has helped feed his colleagues at numerous team appreciation gatherings, and he grills at many other events throughout the community.
"My main ingredient is love,” he says. “It’s just the joy of doing it, and the camaraderie with people when folks enjoy it.”
As he nears an anticipated retirement in early 2027, Holland is looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Patricia, to help make up for holidays and other times where he was answering calls to restore power to others. He also notes that he has a boat, a motorcycle and his late father’s 1966 Ford Mustang as some of the means to occupy his attention.
“I’m enjoying myself right now. I have plenty of vacation time, and I go and do what I want. I have to say that I’ve been good for the co-op, and the co-op has been good to me.”
