For all those who have had the opportunity to visit the COLT training facility in recent years, you know the modern marvel for lineworker training COLT has become. It has come a long way since the days of a tent, porta john, and a shin-high tall grass field. Now it is a 7,200 square foot training center with poles, transformers, overhead and underground lines, reclosers, and other linework apparatus under roof, to maximize the opportunity to give lineworkers more knowledgeable and skills than ever before. All of these things did not easy or overnight. They emerged from the desire to improve the landscape of training and safety to everyone working in the industry.
Today you can point to several people who have had a hand in COLT’s present-day reputation, but there are two men in particular who we owe a great deal of thanks and gratitude for the role they played in creating the landscape we are able to provide today, that allows to develop highly trained lineworkers.
As we welcomed 2024, we knew at COLT it meant saying goodbye to a couple of great men who have proudly and graciously improved the skills and lives of all those who walked through the doors of COLT. Gary Simpson and Dave Allen became household names at COLT as they served as part-time instructors. Both men were more than instructors at COLT, they were retired Ohio Cooperative lineworkers. And they are proud veterans-Gary served in the U.S. Air Force, and Dave served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Gary and Dave are husbands, fathers, and grandfathers, with life lessons beyond the trade to pass on to any who walked through the doors of COLT. They were role models for the up and coming linemen they they were teaching! It is hard to imagine the number of lives they have positively impacted over the years through their willingness to continuously give back to an industry that, “Needed more from them, than they needed from it.” This is what made them so great, and why they will be so dearly missed.
We at COLT wish Gary and Dave a wonderful second retirement and thank them for all they have done for the COLT program over the years!
