"The School of Hard Knocks" Success

We’ve traveled out west to tell you the story about a young man who takes a summertime job and turns it into an opportunity for him, his family, his employees, and yes the town of Kennebec, South Dakota.

“They bought me on the youth labor auction. We raised money for a youth center. And two days’ worth of work, and they had the KOA and the telephone company. So, I went to work at the, at the KOA. And, I worked my two days there and Lloyd came to me and said, “I’d like to hire you to stay on here,” said Rod Bowar. “He said ‘You go with the telephone company, you come with me. You don’t go with the KOA.’ And it started a wonderful relationship with Lloyd and the telephone company. I worked there, and I guess, I’m still working here.”

Rod Bowar is the President and Manager of the Kennebec Telephone Company, established in this small west river town way back in 1908. Rod started working for prior owners Lloyd and Delores Johnstone when he was 18. “Lloyd, when I, had asked me, when I graduated high school, if I wanted to come back and work, he’d, he’d send me to tech school,” said Rod Bowar. “But unfortunately, he was killed in an auto accident before I could go. So, Delores, his wife, said she wanted to keep the company going and she wanted to keep it. She said, ‘I can’t send you to school, but I’ll help you learn anyway, and we’ll try to run it. The two of us.’ That was 1980 and she sold myself and my family the company in 1998,” said Rod Bowar.

Via Keloland News