He loved his job until the early 1980s when, as he said, "the MBAs took over". The company took care of its employees before that, promoting from within and thinking long term. One of his final "fights with the MBAs" was their idea to replace the company apprentice linemen program with contractors as it would move costs around and look better on the balance sheet. He told me he stood up in a high level meeting and asked something like "do you think you could get contractors to come out in the middle of the night in a storm and climb on a pole to help restore service? What about 20 years from now, who is going to teach the apprentices then?".
He was a "company man" and I think he was both happy and sad to retire after nearly 35 years of service when those same MBAs offered a buyout for executives like him.