ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601200008
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
Two men who met in the fifth grade, shared a stint in the military and for many years ran New River Electrical Corp. in Cloverdale are going separate ways.
Charles S. Noell, formerly senior vice president, will direct the company as its new president; former president James A. King has retired.
To hear Noell tell it Friday, he and King led remarkably parallel lives.
They met at Oakland School on Williamson Road and palled around through high school. They were drafted and entered the Army the same day. They endured basic training together, during which time their wives shared a home. The men's assignments eventually took both to Germany.
By all appearances, Noell said, they were "pretty near" brothers.
King, who graduated from Roanoke College, was hired first at New River Electrical. Four years later, he tracked down Noell in a bowling alley and recruited him to be its first engineer. Noell, a graduate of Virginia Tech, started in 1962. In recent years, they ran the company together, though King was first in command.
New River Electrical, founded in Roanoke in 1953, has grown into a major electrical contractor, and now builds and upgrades substations and overhead and underground distribution lines in most states east of the Mississippi River.
The employee-owned company has 100 permanent office workers and field supervisors and about 200 union linemen and other field crews at most times.
Noell said his superior health is one reason he stayed on; both are 62.
The business rented the Star City Ballroom in downtown Roanoke last month to celebrate King's retirement, effective Dec. 31. King plans to tinker with his two antique cars and deepen his involvement at his church, Noell said.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB