PrintDec. 17--URBANA -- Tom Davis started in the electrical contracting business 50 years ago, and he's still working in the field today.
Davis, 74, is the founder of Urbana-based Davis Electric, a business he sold to his children 11 years ago. But he's often out at job sites, dealing with backhoes and helping crews start on new work.
"I'm working my way up the corporate ladder," he quipped. "I'm the muddiest guy working here." For years, Davis' company did work for developer Newt Dodds, wiring most of the industrial buildings in Interstate Research Park in northwest Champaign. Davis also did the electrical work for many area service stations, when pumps and tanks for unleaded gas were first installed.
Now that son Scot Davis and daughter Carmen Davis Kirby are operating Davis Electric, the firm's clients include Fox Development, The Atkins Group, JSM Development and the Petry-Kuhne Co.
But when Davis first got into the business, it was a fledgling operation.
After graduating from Urbana High School in 1954, Davis told his father, a high-voltage foreman at the University of Illinois, that he thought he'd drive a dump truck.
His girlfriend's father later his father-in-law had a dump truck company, so the idea made sense to the teen.
But Davis' father, Charlie Davis, had other ideas. The next day, he brought home an application to join the electricians' union and told young Tom to fill it out.
Accepted in the union, Davis went through the four-year apprenticeship program and advanced to journeyman. Then he and his older brother, Jerry, went into business together as Champaign County Electric. Their first job: wiring a new laundromat on West Bradley Avenue in Champaign.
In 1962, they changed the company's name to Davis Electric, and for a while, they sold Hotpoint kitchen appliances as part of the business.
"When we started the business, we were wiring new houses and rewiring old houses," Davis said. "We were called rafter rats because we climbed around the rafters." In 1967, the brothers went separate ways in business, though Jerry later returned to work for the company.
Davis Electric wired a number of Long John Silver's and Wendy's restaurants in East Central Illinois as well as Eisner grocery stores and Osco drugstores.
A "feather in our cap" was the wiring of Huntington Towers, now known as Devonshire Corporate Tower, Tom Davis said.
Dodds said he first hired Davis "because everybody told me he was an honest and upstanding person. His word was his bond." Over the next four decades, Dodds found that to be true.
"He's just what they said he was," Dodds said. "He always met our budgets." Davis said he seldom worked directly with the University of Illinois, though he sometimes did work for other contractors on campus.
"Me and the university never saw eye to eye," he said, claiming the university was slow in paying. Instead, he focused on private-sector opportunities in and about town.
Over the years, the company had employed several longtime electricians, some of whom retired in the last decade. They include: Toby Drollinger, who worked there 41 years; Tom Davis' other son, Jeff, who worked there 36 years before moving to Florida; John Barham, 34 years; Chuck Shaw, 29 years; and Dale Hubert Jr., 20 years.
Most of the years Tom Davis was in charge, Davis Electric employed nine to 12 electricians.
"That was really all I could handle and make money on. You lose your momentum once you go beyond that many people," he said.
Davis said he made enough money to raise his own family. But when the business passed to his three children Scot, Jeff and Carmen he wasn't sure it would be enough to sustain all their families.
"My concern was how that much work would take care of three families, not one," he said. "When I gave it to the children, I told them, 'I'll help you when you're busy,' and they're busy all the time." Scot Davis said these days Davis Electric employs 25 to 30 electricians year-round.
Until recently, there was plenty of work to be had, he said. During the last five years, each crew had four to five jobs lined up.
But after "the bottom fell out" of the economy, "it's been tougher," he said. There aren't as many big jobs. Each crew has a job lined up, but Davis said he doesn't know what will come next.
"Things look like it's going to slow down more," he said.
Scot Davis said that as a boy, he often went to job sites and pulled wire for his dad.
"Ultimately, I wanted to be a contractor like my dad," he said. Like Tom, he went through the union apprenticeship program and became an electrician. In 1998, he became president of the company.
Scot Davis said he likes working with clients on projects and particularly being asked back for work. He also likes "the competitive nature" of the business.
Among the company's recent projects: the I Hotel and Houlihan's restaurant, the Gregory Place buildings on campus, the Forum at Carle, the Amdocs buildings on Fox Drive, One Main Plaza in downtown Champaign and the Patterson Companies building west of Champaign.
Carmen Davis Kirby, vice president of Davis Electric, began doing office work for the company at age 15 and continued to work there through high school and college.
Both Scot and Carmen have other business ventures. Scot Davis is a co-owner of Davis-Houk Inc., which does plumbing and mechanical work and employs about 60. Carmen Davis Kirby is an owner of the Bella Mia and Bella Bambini, south Champaign boutiques for women and children, which she said allow her to express her "creative side." As for Tom Davis, he devotes his extra time to restoring Cushman motor scooters. He figures he has restored close to 100 of them.
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