Bio: Sowieja, Jerome – REA Safety Award (1973)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Sowieja, Braun, Mosely, Potthast

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 03 May 1973

Jerome Sowieja, Clark Electric Cooperative Line Superintendent, is the first recipient of a memorial award sponsored by the Wisconsin REA Training and Safety committee. The award was presented during the committee’s annual meeting held in the Clark Electric Cooperative auditorium on Tuesday, April 24, 1973, and attended by more than 100 delegates.

The meeting, in addition to awards, included reports on a training program conducted in cooperation with the Wisconsin Schools of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education. Among the trainees who received their journeyman certificates were two members of the Clark Electric Cooperative crew, Richard Braun and Robert Mosely.

The award that went to Sowieja is named in honor of the late Herman Potthast, for 19 years a safety instructor in Wisconsin.

Sowieja has been on the Clark Electric Cooperative staff since 1948, and became line superintendent; he received statewide recognition for an award for saving the life of a fellow employee.