“Mr Watson, come here, I need you,” Alexander Graham Bell said to his assistant in 1876. The first words heard, and understood, through a telephone wire. Bell summoned his assistant after spilling battery acid on his pant leg. Thus began the honor code for telephone people: You need to serve! Those in the business of communication rise to the occasion, serve the community.
JE owns two large, bronze commemorative plaques, which once hung in local phone company buildings in the 1960s. First, a plaque awarded to two men, Sterling D Ditchey, Plant Staff Supervisor, and Robert F Henderson, senior engineer at the Anaheim office. The other, a plaque awarded to Sidney E Hutchins, frame man of Inglewood. Both plaques signified the SILVER level, they also gave bronze and gold awards. The plaques don’t say what the men did. They do say, “Awarded for notable public service.”
NOTE: Once a hero, always a hero. I learned that in 2017 Sterling Ditchey received the National Order of the Legion of Honor at the rank of Chevalier for his service in WWII. Only ten such veterans obtained that honor.
Plaques for Incidences of Valor
The Bell System Committee reviewed incidences of valor, and selected workers of outstanding service as Silver awardees.
Before 1940, they gave silver medals directly to heroes in the form of lapel pins with a cash award of $250. After 1940 the award became $500. Each separate AT&T office presented only ten a year. The office presented a description of the valor and an illustration or painting to the hero.
On these plaques collected by JE we see the round image in relief of Theodore Newton Vail with the Roman numeration of 1845 and 1920. The reverse shows three Greek style heroes with the words “The Vail Medal for Public Service.” The central figure, a female goddess, holds a modern day telephone cable. An eminent designer sculptor explained the Greek style frieze as meaning “communication is speeding down the wire, enabling civilization to move ahead.” The other two figures on either side of her, both males, are named “loyalty to service,” and “devotion to duty.” Created in 1920 the Vail Medal commemorates the President of the American Telegraph and Telephone Company from 1907-1919.
Theodore Vail
Two years after the famous Mr. Watson call from Alexander Graham Bell, Vail became the President of the Bell Company, with Alexander Graham Bell as Engineer. They tested various transmitters and adopted copper wires. Bell bought Western Union; hence The American Telephone and Telegraph Company was born.
Vail became the President of the young company with the philosophy of SERVICE FIRST, arguing that service trumps profits. Of course that philosophy got him fired two years later. Then, twenty years later, they asked him to come back as President because of the chaos of the communication industry in the USA. Every small town had at least three competing phone service providers, and no one could make a call. A standardized system and universal service didn’t exist.
Vail became a remarkable President and stayed with AT&T for 20 more years. His motto? “No business talk after 6pm. Tranquil thoughts are needed. Refuse to be hurried. Love your work and have pride in it. Be courageous: state both sides of an argument openly. Never let them know you are worried. Service is more important than short term gain. If we don’t tell the truth about ourselves, no one else will.”
In the many years these awards were given, I read of heroic exploits awarded. Examples include fighting through a blizzard to fix a downed line, saving a child from a burning building or a man from a flood, a female operator staying two days under duress to keep the lines open, a telephone worker saving a stranded man under a collapsed icy bridge using his cable and a cable car and body belt and safety straps, winding his way over water and fog to find that one man.
The value of these plaques is $450 each.