About Us
The following is a brief history from Dianne W. Bishop.
In 1922, Henry Lipscomb opened an electric company in downtown Lakeland, on Lemon Street. Their main scope of the work was running power lines for the County. A few years later, Lipscomb Electric moved to Tennessee Avenue and started selling kitchen appliances along with doing electrical contracting. By 1949, the appliance business had grown, and they were in need of warehouse space. Mr. Lipscomb found some property on Ingraham Avenue and built two Quonset huts for warehousing the appliances. In 1953, he built an appliance showroom next to the Quonset huts.
My grandfather, Elmer H. Wilson, Sr., started with the company in 1932 as a bookkeeper, and nine years later, he helped his 16-year-old son, E. Harold Wilson, Jr., get a job as an apprentice electrician. After the death of Mr. Lipscomb in 1960, the company was bought by E. Harold Wilson, Jr., and the name changed to Wilson Electric Company.
My brother, Bob, turned 16 in 1953 and came into the family business as an apprentice electrician, but soon moved into the office with his grandfather. Because they had gotten out of the appliance business a few years earlier, Bob wanted to develop some kind of retail trade, so he took the showroom and started selling light fixtures, electric parts, and lamps (light bulbs).
In November 1973, when my grandfather died suddenly, Bob stepped in to help with the bookkeeping while continuing with the retail sales. E. Harold continued to run the electrical construction part of the business. In 1991, E. Harold was diagnosed with cancer, and in November of the same year, Bob had a serious heart attack and had to stop work.
In June of 1994, after going through a few managers, Dad and I agreed that I would bring my design business into Wilson Electric, and we would figure out what to do from there. It didn't take long to decide to close my business and to rebuild the electric business.
With the help of Rusty Tucker (our dispatcher), Alia Ousley (our bookkeeper), and most of all God, we were able to rebuild the business. In the summer of 1998, Thomas Kassler (T.K.) called from Arkansas to see if I was hiring and before he could say anything, I asked him to come work with me. I had known T.K. since junior high school, when we were in Word of Life Bible Club. I also knew of his reputation as a Master Electrician.
In the year 2005, the Lighting Company was set up as a separate corporation from Wilson Electric, at which time T.K. and Rusty were made partners of Wilson Electric Company.
Today, we still consider God our main partner. Every Friday afternoon, we meet to talk about our week and to pray for the next week, for our employees, our contractors, and customers.