Bob Miscovitch served in the Royal Canadian Air Force for ten years. Three of those ten years were served in Europe. His training in military communications qualified him for his future career at BC Tel. He met Linda Tucker who at that time worked as a secretary in the health services department of the Manitoba Provincial Government. Bob and Linda were married in Winnipeg in 1967 and then moved to Prince George; they recently celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary.
Bob, who is now 75 years old worked for BC Tel for 27 years and retired in 1993, that was 20 years ago.
Bob's job title back then was "Toll Repeater Man". His job title now is the "Iron Man". I will tell you about that further on in this story. Now, let's get back to his BC Tel days. It was Bob's job way back then to do the maintenance on the now obsolete Teletypewriter Exchange Service (TWX), teletypes and teleprinters and to keep it all in running order. It was a type of communication system that used a variety of different communication media that included a simple pair of wires that communicated through standard switched public telephone lines. I think that was about the same time that the telegraph service was on its way out.
These systems were eventually replaced by fully electronic computer terminals. Bob and his crew installed the first toll electronic switch here in Prince George.
Wray Woodman transferred out and Bob took over his position as the Network Supervisor. Shortly after that Bob and his crew installed the first digital electronic switch in Prince George. He saw the technology go from analog to digital and now it is all run by computers.
This is 27 years of Bob's BC Tel career in a nutshell. Bob says, "BC Tel was a great company to work for. I traveled all over British Columbia as the Quality Operation Review Supervisor and I met a lot of good people."
Today, either golfing or curling is the name of his game. He was the zone director for the British Columbia Interior Curling Association for seven years and then went on to serve the association as Vice President, President and Past President.
Bob was a member of the team that competed in the 1994 Canadian Senior Curling Championships losing to New Brunswick in the final game.
Linda did secretarial work for Ben Ginter's construction company and the Ben Ginter Brewery until the babies started to arrive. She then volunteered at her children's school for eight years. She was the area leader and canvasser for the Heart Foundation for 20 years and is now an alternate for the public library home delivery service for seniors and shut-ins.
They had two children Colleen and Ken and they both live in Victoria. Bob and Linda were very happy to tell me that they now have two grandchildren with another one on the way.
They are both volunteers and members of the TELUS Community Ambassadors. This is where his title as "Iron Man" comes in. For the past five years Bob and Linda have been part of the TELUS Senior Bags Project. Other members of our 2013 team include me, Lino Nadalin, Lorraine Phillips, Janice Taylor and our two newest members Dawn Quinn and Carol Haugland. We cut out and sew 85 cloth bags and then fill them with goodies for seniors that are alone at Christmas. The project is totally funded and supported by TELUS.
Lino starts the assembly line process by cutting out the bags. Linda, Lorraine, Janice, Carol, Dawn and I do the sewing and Bob being the "Iron Man" - well he does all the ironing. His skills as the Quality Review Supervisor from his BC Tel days are evident. He is quite meticulous, has a great sense of humour and he makes sure that we all do the job right. This is always a six week project: We all work hard together and have lots of fun at the same time. The TELUS motto is "We give where we live," and when we finish the project we are all happy to know that 85 seniors are a bit happier at Christmas.
