To retiree Lonnie Starks, the old adage “collect them all” applies to more than trading cards or action figures. In his tenure at TVA, he collected job titles in all the generation types: nuclear, gas, coal and hydro – the complete set.
“All I knew when I started out was, flip a light switch up and it turned the light on, flip it down to kill-a-watt,” Lonnie laughed. “I can’t take credit for that joke.”
Although born and raised in Indiana, he has a history with TVA.
“My parents had moved to Kingston in 1973,” Lonnie said, detailing their family’s migration south. “My dad worked as a pipefitter at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant when it was being built. Craftwork runs in the family.”
Lonnie shared a rich, decades-spanning account of his career in electrical craftwork across multiple TVA facilities. The journey began in 1991 at Watts Bar Nuclear, where he completed an 8,000-hour electrical apprenticeship program and got acquainted with the rigor of nuclear procedures.
“You want to know the most important tool in that job? An ink pen,” Lonnie said matter-of-factly. “Everything you touch, move and reconfigure has to be documented. It was all very thorough and regulated.”
He traced his career through roles at Watts Bar, a short stop at the combustion turbines at Gallatin, and then to Kingston Fossil Plant – where it all started for his dad.
“Kingston was different,” Lonnie said. “I went from somewhere like shiny and new to a coal plant. But it was full of history and old in lots of wonderful ways.”
That’s where his knowledge of the craft grew the most.
“It’s where I learned on-the-job troubleshooting and soaked in a lot of generational knowledge,” he said. “There was a veteran craftsman there named Mr. Newby.”
But don’t let the name fool you.
“Mr. Newby’s parking spot had a sign that said, ‘Reserved for anyone with 53 years or more plant experience,’ and that was just him.”
Eventually Lonnie moved to Hydro, where he would retire. After spending significant time across the Valley region and touching all generation types, his biggest takeaway was TVA’s commitment to Safety.
“TVA is the safest place I’ve ever worked in my life,” Lonnie said. “I don’t think I was ever told one time, ‘Hurry up.’ We were encouraged to be careful.”
Lonnie’s career and personal life spanned a large swath of the country – not to mention the ups and downs of the human experience. He lost his beloved daughter, Nora, in a car accident when she was a senior in high school.
He pulled up a photo of her on his phone, as quickly as if it had just been taken.
“This is the last photo I have of her. The night of her first date at the winter formal,” Lonnie said, choking up. “It was a great honor and privilege to be her dad. She is one of the most special people in my life, and her older brother Barrett is another one.”
Lonnie pursued some studies in counseling after this tragedy and remained grounded in his faith. Service has always been important to him – and was to Nora, too – and so much of his life was spent in service to the Valley region and to those in need.
“You know,” Lonnie said. “If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have retired. I would still be working at TVA. Who knows, I might have been another Mr. Newby by now.”
Lonnie was featured in a February 2000 edition of a TVA publication.