Twenty-nine years and one day. That is how long Dispatcher Glen Campbell has been taking care of customers while most of us were sleeping. This past Sunday, Campbell retired.
“I’ll walk out the door at midnight,” Campbell said. “And I’ll go home and sleep. Just the way I wanted it to be.”
Campbell says he has loved working nights.
“I love the stars and the night skies,” he said. “I enjoy time to myself. Night work gives you that.”
Campbell began working for Conway Corp at a time when the company offered utility services and basic cable.
“Then customers called in an electric outage and we sent guys out for area outages, but if it was cable we sent people out the next day.”
Today Campbell is not just fielding calls to dispatch crews, but also assisting customers with cable boxes and internet questions.
“Back then there were radios and pagers,” he said. “Today everyone has a cell phone. Technology has come, and it has changed our job a lot.”
Campbell is looking forward to being home and doing things around the house.
“I drive a dump truck part-time,” he said. “I’ll keep doing that.”
“I’m going to miss the people,” he added. “I hate calling people out at 2 or 3 in the morning – but every one of them has always been so good to me. I’m going to miss them. There are good customers I’m going to miss too.”
Now that Campbell is done helping customers in the middle of the night, what’s he planning on doing when he needs help?
“If the power goes out at home, I’m going to light a candle. If the cable goes out, I’m going to read a book,” Campbell said with a smile. “I’m not calling anyone.”
