featuring TOMMY BOLACK

Tommy Bolack likes to relate the following incident from his youth as indicative of how passionate he is about all things electrical. At the tender age of four, capitalizing on every parent's deepest fear, Tommy took a bent fork and stuck it into a receptacle. The ensuing flash and shock, instead of scaring him away from such a frightening energy source, jolted him toward focusing his abilities on studying, applying and managing the properties of electricity.

As you might well imagine, that childhood stunt did not go unpunished, but the curiosity which led to it could not be contained. Eventually, all receptacles at the Bolack residence in Farmington, New Mexico were covered with blank plates. With this outlet denied, Tommy turned his youthful talents toward the disassembly of discarded electrical devices. Shortly thereafter, he discovered the base of telephone poles to be an excellent source of wire and connectors, not to mention fragments of those odd shaped glass objects we've all grown to love. 

Five year old Tommy couldn't completely pronounce the word for those glass objects, managing instead the shortened term "insurs". His first whole "insur" -- a Hemingray-9 was obtained at this age as a gift from an uncle in Kansas who used them on his electric fences. 

Tommy turned six in 1957, a year during which his collection doubled in size when a power line in the alley behind his house was reworked. By year's end, thanks in part to linemen kind enough to heed a small boy's requests, Tommy had amassed 25 different shapes. Sharing a sentiment that many long time collectors have felt early in their collecting careers, Tommy was confident that he could easily obtain all known shapes, figuring he already had most of them in hand! With forty years of collection now under his belt, Tommy confesses that today he feels farther from this goal than ever.

A 1958 family vacation to visit relatives in Kansas brought some highly prized color to the ever expanding collection. At a stop in Great Bend, KS, Tommy was given the opportunity to look through a pile of insulators as large as his parent's Chevrolet Impala. Although many of the insulators were broken, Tommy managed to pull out enough amber and cobalt specimens to fill an apple carton.

TOMMY BOLACK  Farmington, NM  Born: April 29, 1951  Collecting Since: 1956 Primary Specialty: American threaded & threadless CD's  Secondary Specialty: Color variation in CD's 126, 126.4, 140, 145, 151 & 162 Tommy's collection numbers approximately 2,400 pieces featuring 290 threaded and 32 threadless CD's, with 4 one-of-a-kind insulator's.

Later during this same trip, Tommy was granted permission to scour a telephone company storage yard in Bushton, Kansas. The proprietors, Mr. & Mrs. Ed Koch, let the boy carry off as much as he wanted. Imagine the excitement a seven year old must have found in adding six apple cartons full of insulators to his collection, not the least of which was a CD 196 transposition! It took quite a bit of convincing before his parents agreed to haul Tommy's new found treasures home to New Mexico. 

When the Bolack family returned to Kansas three years later, Tommy was shocked to learn that the Bushton insulator pile had generated so much interest that individual insulators now SOLD for a quarter apiece! As difficult as this may be for newer collectors to understand, the concept of paying for insulators was quite foreign to most during the formative era of collecting. Ten year old Tommy was no exception, picking through the pile with great care and eventually purchasing only a handful.

An early view of young Tommy's collection featuring 
many items retrieved during his Bushton adventures.

To this point, Tommy had never enjoyed a complete encouragement from his parents toward his hobby, receiving at best a tacit tolerance. This abruptly changed in 1964 as a result of a trade with a Kansas collector which netted six different exquisitely colored H.G.CO. signals. Almost everyone could appreciate the beautiful hues: yellow, honey amber, red amber, purple and cobalt; displayed as they were on a sunlit window sill. It was then too that Tommy realized how badly he'd been bitten by the insulator bug, as his admiration for the beauty of such utilitarian objects could not longer be denied.

As with all undertakings, there are risks associated with insulator collecting. Tommy recalls an incident from 1969 when a pole gave way beneath a friend as he climbed it. The resultant fall entailed a two day hospital stay, but thankfully, a complete recovery ensued. This episode should serve as a potent reminder that today's neglected poles can be far more dangerous than that pole was twenty-seven years ago. 

Tommy Bolack describes himself. as small (read carefully) -- 5' 20" and 150 kilos -- and shy. Pictured on the following page with fellow New Mexico collector Tom Katonak, one can begin to get a feel for his sense of humor. What lies unseen are his considerable accomplishments, both within the hobby and without. 

Tommy graduated from New Mexico State University in 1975 with a BS in electrical engineering. His collection numbered close to 800 pieces during his college years, and portions of it were exhibited at the NMSU museum.

Putting his degree to work, Tommy designed and installed a primary electrical distribution system to feed irrigation pumps serving 600 acres of farmland on his ranch. He also took the helm as director of neighboring Aztec, NM Electric Utility. During his tenure in that capacity, Tommy was instrumental in rebuilding the utilities distribution system. The six year project required conversion from 2400v to 7200v, and resulted in an efficiency increase from 82% to 97%.

Tommy Bolack (vertical) holds an experimental version
of a ground operated insulator snatcher bearing uncanny 
likeness of Tom Katonak (horizontal).

The new system saves Aztec's customers close to $100,000 annually. At its completion, the city's substation was rededicated in honor of Bolack. Upon stepping down as director in 1994, Tommy was named as recipient of the Seven Hats Award, presented for outstanding service by the American Public Power Association. 

Tommy and his father, former governor of New Mexico Tom Bolack, co-own and operate 12,500 acres of Farmington better known as the B Square Ranch. Through the years Tommy has been honored with numerous conservation awards for his work on the ranch, notably by: Goodyear (1981,1987); New Mexico Historic Preservation Division (1986); National Endowment for Soil and Water Conservation (1986); and the New Mexico State Fair (1987). 

Tommy's mother, Alice, died from cancer in 1978, and is sincerely missed. She too had grown quite fond of insulators, especially anything purple.

A portion of the collection from November 1972,
 some of which was displayed at NMSU.

No story of this man would be complete without mention of Casa de Madera, Tommy's 9,000 square foot home. It is his dream house, designed to harmonize with the majestic sandstone bluffs which provide its backdrop. It is also an outstanding work of architecture, with Tommy himself as architect as well as providing civil and electrical engineering for the structure. The bulk of his CD specialty collection is displayed here on finely crafted rare wood cabinetry and window shelves.