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Dickey Electric celebrates 60 years in business
By Kalea Hall
NORTH LIMA
Joe Dickey Jr., 88, doesn’t deny he had worries when he took over a local electric company 60 years ago.
The Marine Corps veteran had three small children at home to take care of.
“I was very nervous,” he admits.
But the owner of MD Bush Co., a local electric company at the time, and an area banker assured him he could run the company and make a living.
Dickey was good at the electrical trade and often impressed the owner.
“I’d helped him on some projects that were too big for him,” Dickey said. “‘I never saw anybody that good,’ he said.”
To really run the company that he renamed Joe Dickey Electric, Dickey had to create new customers, expand his services and survive some trying times in his personal life that affected his business.
Six months after he purchased the electric company, Dickey’s wife died from pneumonia, and Dickey got a staph infection that had him off work for more than 40 days.
When he had recovered from his loss and the infection, he went to the bank to get a loan.
“I couldn’t even breathe when I went in there,” he said. “I was so scared.”
Dickey was able to get the loan to help keep his business alive, and he got back to work.
“I did small commercial and residential [work],” he said. “I hired extra men and did a lot of commercial.”
In 1960, with his business partner Jerry Sabrin, Dickey opened a Dickey Supply storefront in North Lima. The company opened other supply shops in East Palestine, Lisbon and Wellsville. Eventually, Sabrin and Dickey sold off the supply shops in the 1990s.
A generator specialist shop also was opened and later sold.
Dickey’s focus also has been on putting the customer first, no matter the size of the job.
He started as a residential contractor, and those customers told him he did such a good job he should do the work on the factories they ran or worked in.
Projects completed by Dickey Electric through the years include Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Compco, Packard Electric, the Mahoning County Justice Center, Youngstown State University, Giant Eagle, Walmart, Fellows Riverside Gardens, an amusement park in South Korea and the body shop at the General Motors Lordstown Complex.
“They’ve gone from 12-man shop to over 300 people,” Dickey said. “They’ve done work all over the U.S. and Puerto Rico.”
Dave Dickey, chief executive officer of the company and Joe Dickey’s son, has always known he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“He was always the first one in the truck,” Joe Dickey said. “He knew everything by the time he was 6 or 7.”
“I would hold the flashlight and run and get the tools,” Dave added.
In 1993, Dave took over the business as president.
“I wanted to grow the company into the industrial sector,” Dave said. “I wanted to go into the steel plants and heavy automotive. We went into that during my tenure. The whole company is based on Dad’s theory of customer service and customer satisfaction.”
Earlier this year, Dickey Electric announced that 25-year employee Eric Carlson would take over as president, Dave became CEO and Joe is the chairman of the company.
Carlson is an electrical engineering graduate from Youngstown State University whose father, the late Gary Carlson, worked for Joe. who asked Dave to bring Eric on board.
“The first job I did here, I cleaned out the old dirty mill,” Carlson said. “The neat thing is I never had another job.”
Joe refers to Carlson as an “energetic young man,” who has helped the company tap into markets it wasn’t in before.
“We have a lot of great younger leadership,” Carlson said. “Our management team is strong. Our electricians are strong. It’s a true testament to what we are able to do based on the people we have.”