The Last One

By Steve Foshee

Well, it is here. This is my final magazine article before retirement. It has been a great journey. I thank you all very much for the opportunity to serve our membership. It has been over 24 years, and it is hard to understand how the time has passed so quickly. It would be my desire to write you a profound article here at the end, but that is not likely to happen.

Britton Lightsey will officially be taking over after this month. He is a bright individual with very good values and great leadership experience. He has lived in this community for over 10 years and has a wonderful family who will support him all the way. He will be a great leader for our cooperative.

The employees of both Tombigbee Electric and Tombigbee Communications are outstanding. They are a mostly young, cohesive group who believe in our mission. They are very energetic, and the future is very bright here. There will continue to be significant challenges, but I am very confident in the team here working for you. They will be equal to these great challenges.

Over the past 24 plus years, I have worked for a number of board members. All have been outstanding. There is not one meeting I dreaded, and we have not had one time they have been disagreeable with each other or with me. Why this does not mean they have always agreed on everything, they have been able to express their disagreement in a very agreeable way. This is very rare. They have been a model of how the board should conduct themselves. Every chairman of the board has been great, starting with Robert Crow to our current chairman, Curt Morris.

Tombigbee has gone through many changes. Today, it is an over $100-million cooperative. It is big business. It is fulfilling the mission. It is making a real difference in the community. I know this can continue, and we can continue to count on your support. There will be significant changes in the future with power production, continued growth of freedom FIBER, changing in personnel, environmental issues and many more. Please stay informed with these issues. We will work to keep you updated through our magazine and social media channels.

I also want to say thank you to those who have retired ahead of me. Unfortunately, many of those have moved on to the permanent life. If there are any accomplishments here in my tenure, much of this is due to them. They were and are great people.

Finally, I want to thank my family, especially my wife, Libby. Nothing could have been done without her support and guidance. She has suffered my absences many, many times as I focused on the job. To my children, Joshua and Caleb. They had to endure almost every major storm with their dad gone.

What are my goals after retirement?

To be the strongest Christian I can be, to be the best dad I can be and to be the best “Pop” to Jack and Luke possible. May God bless you all, this area of the state and Tombigbee. Thank you very much for being a part of this great journey.