FU Ag Ambassador is retired East River Electric manager
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HURON — Rural Electric Cooperatives, it seems have been a part of Jeff Nelson’s life story from the beginning.
“I am proud to have grown up in a co-op family,” says the retired general manager of East River Electric whose father was an early rural electric cooperative employee.
Nelson first worked for East River Electric as an intern while attending South Dakota State University pursuing a degree in electrical engineering. Then, when he returned from serving more than three years in the Army, it just so happened East River Electric had an opening.
“It was an entry level position. I thought I’d be there for a year or two. Forty years later I retired,” says Nelson, who was named the 2018 South Dakota Farmers Union Agriculture Ambassador during the organization’s State Convention held in Pierre Nov. 29 - 30.
From the start, Nelson was motivated by the mission of rural electric cooperatives, “lighting rural America.” And, although most farms and ranches were connected to electricity by the time he began working for East River Electric, he said supporting rural America became “more of a mission than a job.”