Sam Silverman
I've been working in the industry since 1967 when my love of music and hi-fis took me to an after school job doing muzak, intercoms & PA. When Interconnect was allowed I started on Key Systems - mostly 1A2 and some of the early Japanese systems - The NEC Patricians, the Tie 1030 and the first Iwatsus and Shimcoms.
I tried selling Interconnect in 1973 and failed miserably and went back to work as an installer. By now I had moved up to ITT 36A & 76A Systems and small switches - mostly the Northern Electric SG-1 and the Tele Resources 32.
I owned a contracting business in the mid '70s and while I made money on paper, I couldn't collect it. Back to Installation. This time it was ITT TD-100s and Siemen's SD-192s.
In the late '70s I came in to Local 3, IBEW as a Journeyman and a lot of much larger work opened up for me.
I was certified by GTE as a Test Engineer (CO Switchman) and installed some large PBX/COs - most notably the GTD-4600 and the Omni. I guess I fooled someone in Management because I was kicked upstairs and for 10 years I managed the Communications Network for one of the largest Banks in America. That worked out until my division of GTE was sold to a major foreign corporation and I was asked to steal. Back to Installation.
I've installed some very large PA Systems since those first ones in Brooklyn in the '60s. I've also done a lot of Outside Plant including Point-to- Point Microwave Systems and Single Mode Fiber as well as Copper and Coax. I've taken CCNA 1-4 and have gotten certified as an instructor on Cisco VOIP. All that did was convince me that VOIP was sent here to earth by Satan to plague all of us Telephone folk.
Since I left the Bank I spent the next 13 years back in Installation; the last 3 as a Plant Man at a NYC Agency handling 3,000 lines of ISDN Centrex.
Early this year I put my papers in and after more then 40 years in the Industry have retired.
It's nice. I've never been so busy or so relaxed at the same time.
I live in NYC with wife 1.0, have 2 grown children (neither of whom have yet seen fit to give us grandchildren) and if I can loosely translate Edith Piaf's famous quote:
I don't regret nothing.
Hobbies are reading, cooking, music and traveling.
