Danny Janway retires this week after 16 years with Wolverine. Danny, like many at Wolverine, spent his entire career in the electric industry. Yet Danny’s career also spans his lifetime. He grew up watching his father in the business, and he has spent most of his life working on electric utility projects, including many facets of distribution, transmission, and generation.

At our June Board Meeting, Danny offered his perspectives on a lifetime in the electric industry. He showed a number of pictures of modern work he did in Michigan, and also showed photographs of older projects in the central Plains and Rocky Mountains. While our industry has changed dramatically in many respects, Danny’s career symbolizes a permanence that “experts” too often forget — the most complicated problems can often be solved with hard work and ingenuity.

Danny leaves a permanent positive mark on Wolverine. During his time, Wolverine has upgraded or replaced 350 miles of transmission line, 60 distribution substations, and 20 transmission stations. His 138 kV, single-pole design will be the workhorse Wolverine structure for the next decade of upgrades.

The first summer Danny arrived, electric demands skyrocketed because thousands of our member-customers began installing air-conditioning for the first time following two record years of summer heat. He spent his first year simply trying to bootstrap distribution transformers from overloading. Yet through his determination, we slowly transitioned out of crisis mode and into a phase of systematic long-term upgrades that should carry member loads for decades to come.

Join me in extending Best Wishes to Danny on a well-earned retirement. For some reason he still loves the snow, so give him a call this winter if you need help clearing your driveway! No doubt, Danny will carry on with his usual smile and a kind word while whistling softly a Christmas carol.