4 minute read
Celebrating a Half-Century
HALF-CENTURY
Bobbie Roberts spent 50 years at NorthWestern Energy and was the first woman to hold several positions in the company
By Erin Madison
When Bobbie Roberts started with NorthWestern Energy, then Montana Power Company, 50 years ago, there were no female meter readers in the company, no female dispatchers, and no women working in hydro plants.
Bobbie held all of those positions during her 50year career, and was the first woman to do so, paving the way for many women who followed. She’s also the first employee to serve 50 years with NorthWestern Energy.
In 1971, Bobbie was hired to work on the service desk in Bozeman. At the time, each division had its own service desk to answer customer outage calls and dispatch field crews. She worked in that position for two years, and mentioned that if the company would ever consider having a female meter reader, she’d be interested in the position.
“Next thing I knew, I was reading meters,” Bobbie said. “There was no reason not to have a woman do it.”
The job didn’t require lifting or carrying anything heavy.
“All you were doing was walking around reading meters and dealing with dogs,” Bobbie said.
At that time, meter readers didn’t have cellphones or radios in their trucks, which meant if Bobbie got stuck on snowy, rural roads, she was on her own.
“If I got stuck, I pretty much had to walk to find a place where I could call,” she said. “I learned to put chains on.”
Bobbie enjoyed her time as a meter reader, being outside, walking and driving backroads.
“I got to be outside, and I was pretty much on my own,” Bobbie said.
Five years after starting with the company, a position opened at the Colstrip Power Plant. Bobbie and another woman both applied for it. Bobbie got cold feet, and the other woman took the job, becoming the first woman to work at Colstrip. Shortly after, Bobbie applied for a position at Thompson Falls and got the job.
“I took care of wiping down the generators, wiping down oil and keeping the floors clean,” Bobbie said.
Bobbie, in her iconic orange hard hat, walks into the sunset after five decades with NorthWestern Energy.
She also did yard work in the summer around company housing. She ran the crane on the dam to pull boards for high water and to remove trash from the dam. And she trained to be a hydro plant operator to cover when other workers were on vacation. To Bobbie’s knowledge, she was the first woman in Montana to work in a hydro facility.
Bobbie loved her time in Thompson Falls. She picked huckleberries and made close friends. However, she wasn’t able to do some of the physical labor required in her job, and had to ask for help from her male co-workers.
“It wasn’t fair to the guys to have to do that on top of their own stuff,” she said.
A position opened in the dispatch center in Butte, and Bobbie took the job – once again the first woman in the position.
“That was another opportunity for a woman, being in the right place in the right time,” she said.
Bobbie worked in the control center for the rest of her career.
“It’s what I’ve been doing for the last 40 years,” she said. “The industry has changed a great deal, but basically what I do now is what I started with in Bozeman.”
As an electric transmission operator, Bobbie controls transmission lines, taking them out of service when crews need to work on them, and keeping the grid in balance.
“It’s very safety-conscious work,” Bobbie said.
It’s also very intricate and
complex work. Bobbie found the best way to understand what goes on in the control center is to see what happens in the field. Bobbie has spent many of her days off going to visit crews working on transmission lines. It’s helped her understand the intricate workings of our power lines.
“I like working with the guys in the field,” Bobbie said. “I have the old Montana Power hard hat. When they see that orange hat, they know it’s me.”
These days NorthWestern Energy hard hats are white, so Bobbie’s bright orange hard hat, a holdover from the old Montana Power Company, which was purchased by NorthWestern Energy, stands out.
Spending much of her career as the only woman in a male-dominated field was never an issue for Bobbie.
“The guys have been good to me,” she said.
Bobbie’s hard work and dedication clearly played a role in advancing her career, but Bobbie also credits timing for some of her success. Traditionally male positions
opened up to women as more and more women worked outside of the home.
“It was always the man who did the work; it was always the husband who provided for the family,” Bobbie said. “That has changed a lot.”
“I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time for three of the positions I worked,” she added.
Bobbie retired from NorthWestern Energy in July 2021, but she doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.
Her retirement plans include volunteering, driving back roads and traveling.
“That’s why I stayed working for so long, because I needed something to do,” she said.
Bobbie, who spent 50 years with NorthWestern Energy, works at her desk in the control center.
