2014 Western Section President
Marcus “Sam” Sampson
Minnesota Chapter
The opportunity to share my story with you today as the 2014 president of the IAEI Western Section is a tremendous honor. My story isn’t a simple one and it sure hasn’t been easy. It starts in the early 1970’s when I had dropped out of the University of Minnesota, taken a couple bartending jobs and traveled around the US and Europe. Then one day, I learned the local electrical apprenticeship training program was accepting applications from women.
My apprenticeship started early on a Wednesday morning with a totally inexperienced and very nervous me arriving at the jobsite with a shiny leather tool pouch filled with brand new tools. Naturally, it had been raining for a week, the job was just coming out of the ground and the backhoe was stuck in the clay. The electrical contractor put in a call for a couple apprentices because the trench from the street to the building was going to have to be dug by hand. After 2 backbreaking days on the job with my blistered hands covered with gauze and Band-Aids under my gloves, I was laid off – sent back to the hiring hall. In addition to the lay-off, the shop foreman called the hiring hall to complain that he had “requested an apprentice…not a girl.” And of course, the folks at hall made sure I knew about it.
I was feeling pretty defeated, but thankfully, it got easier after that. My next placement was a new 40-story office building in downtown Minneapolis that was barely out of the ground. For over a year, I was on a crew with about a dozen seasoned electricians who took me under their wing and treated this wide-eyed apprentice as they would’ve treated their daughter, wife or granddaughter coming into the trade. They went out of their way to teach me what I needed to know. They answered countless questions and filled my days with tricks of the trade, tall tales and friendship. I learned how bend conduit, tie it to the rebar in the slab and protect it during the pour. I learned about lightning protection for a skyscraper, about setting the iron and oiling the concrete forms, about sprinkler fitters and plumbers and steamfitters. I helped pull huge conductors into really big conduit through giant junction boxes from the basement to the 40th floor, and learned how to megger and terminate them. I was like a sponge, learning more about the construction industry every day.
Of course, the job was outside and the Minnesota winter weather was brutal. I started work at 7:30 with 2-pair of socks in my Sorrel boots, a pair of coveralls over my blue jeans, T-shirt, shirt, sweatshirt, winter coat, mittens and hardhat (with liner). At lunchtime we would walk over to the “skip” and ride down 20 + floors to our lunchroom in the basement, except on Mondays, when I drove down to the JATC and spent the next 8-hours in hitting the books.
On that first big job, our crew had a “safety meeting” every Friday afternoon. These sessions were actually extensions of the conversations we had at lunch every day but seasoned with brandy, schnapps, gin, vodka or cocoa along with some crackers, olives and pickled herring. A few bumps, some more stories about their families, their work, jobs on the road and the outlandish things they’d seen and done. After my year with these guys, I knew I was going to make it – because I wasn’t anywhere near as crazy as them. And because for the first time in my life, I was not only making a decent wage, I was passionate about my work.
So, that’s where it all started – my love affair with the electrical industry. I’d had a curious for all things electrical for as long as I could remember, but I had finally found my place.
I worked with a lot of terrific electricians after that amazing year, and continued to learn about the wonders of electricity while dealing with being a woman in an all-male industry. I got physically and emotionally stronger and learned that the important things were to get the job done and to walk away proud of your work. Every day, I proved to my coworkers – and myself – that I was going to be good at this. Three more years of school added to the diversity of my work experience. I worked jobs at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune printing center, at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Lock and Dam Number One and at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. And I was never again asked to dig a 75-foot, 2-foot deep trench in wet clay.
One of the greatest compliments of my career came when my 23-year old niece who already had graduate degree and a successful career stopped in at my house one Saturday morning. I was surprised to hear her say that she was giving it all up. She had decided she wanted to be an electrician – she decided she wanted to be like me.
During that time I also became involved with a non-profit organization, Women in the Trades (WIT) which was dedicated to telling young women about construction trades career options. I spoke at career events for girls and brought hand tools, pieces of wire, switches, receptacles and ½-inch conduit benders. I’ll never forget the class of fifth-grade Girl Scouts who were so proud of the EMT 90’s they’d bent – all by themselves -that they asked if they could take them home.
I worked hard and studied hard and became the first female licensed master electrician in Minnesota and was the first female electrical inspector in the state. I even tried my hand at electrical contracting, but quickly learned that inspecting easier on the knees and shoulders and in many ways was a lot more challenging than working with the tools.
I’m sure that all of us can point to someone that has been a significant influence in their life. I can easily rattle off a list of at least a dozen guys who more than inspired me – including my father. Who I am today is a combination of influences and choices; it’s where I came from, what I’ve done, who I worked with, where I’m headed and why.
I wouldn’t be here today had it not been for an electrical inspector in the city of Saint Paul. I was running a job in his district and knew very well how important it was to meet the local inspector for coffee. Well, I met up with him and we discussed the job, but the next thing I knew he had invited me to my first IAEI meeting, encouraged me to attend the section meeting and got me elected to the executive board. He encouraged me to apply for the NEC code panel pool and I was appointed to code-making panel in 2002. I am proud to say that Past International President Dick Owen has been a sounding board, supporter, mentor and friend, since the day he didn’t let me buy his coffee.
45-years ago being a woman in the electrical industry was a formidable challenge, but times do change. In 2004 I made a profoundly personal decision to transition to a male identity. Happily, I did not have to give up my family or my career. Many of you knew me before and have made your own decision about this, but all of you have respected mine.
Behind every successful man, there is a strong, wise and hardworking woman and I wouldn’t be here without Pat. She and I were legally married on February 1, 2006 but we had been together for 21-years before that. She has been by my side through rotator cuff surgery (twice) and anterior cruciate ligament surgery (twice) and of course, my transgender surgery.
We share our 1950’s rambler on a 1-acre lot in Roseville, MN with our 2-cats and 2-dogs. We invite friends and neighbors in for Christmas cookie decorating every year, have campfires in the back yard well into the winter and host the National Night Out event each August. In other words, we live a very ordinary life in the heart of the Midwest.
Right now I am in the best place a man can be. I love my job as the electrical code principal for the state of Minnesota, where I work with people from every aspect of the industry. And I have the company of a woman who is madly in love with me. And I am the President of the IAEI Western Section.
As President, I thoroughly enjoyed the outrageous hospitality of the Nebraska Chapter at their October meeting. Pat and I plan to travel to as many chapter meetings as my work schedule permits and are looking forward to discovering fabulous places and delightful people before the 2014 annual section meeting in Cleveland next September.