2019 Western Section President
Robert Fahey
Wisconsin Chapter
I was fortunate to have been able to be in and around 
electrical work since a very young age (12 years old), thanks to my Dad owning his own Contracting business & willing to take me with him on service calls and other electrical and water well installations. Being a “gopher” at such a young age, taught me so much about the electrical and water well business. By the time I was about 15 years old, I was helping Dad in wiring new and remodeled houses, farm wiring, and assisting Dad on the installation and service calls for water pump systems by the time I was 16 years old. In about 1980, we started wiring new homes in Fitchburg and this is the when I had 1st heard of an “Inspector”!!!! Dad told me that there would be an Inspector coming to be sure we installed the wiring properly – I thought to myself, what was this all about, as in the rural farm areas, where we typically worked, there were no Inspectors or Inspections. Dad assured me this was a good thing. The next day, a gentleman named “Reggie Kilps” came and inspected the new home. Over the next few years, as we installed more wiring in more populated areas in and around Madison Wisconsin, and the Inspection process and the Inspectors grew on me and agreed that this was a good thing for all involved. After installing wiring in agricultural and residential occupancies, I had the urge to work into more commercial wiring, so applied at E&S Electric in Mt. Horeb WI, Irv Eichorst was gracious enough to hire me and eventually allowed me to go thru a State of Wisconsin Electrical Apprenticeship and then successfully became a Journeyman Electrician. I then decided to take the exam for the State of Wisconsin Master Electrician certification. After becoming a State of Wisconsin certified Master Electrician, I started traveling farther from home for jobs and had small kids, so Connie encouraged me to apply for an Electrical Inspector job for the City of Janesville when she notice the job advertised in the local newspaper. While reluctant to apply due to only having 15 years of electrical wiring experience, I decided to proceed with the application, to make a long story short, thanks to Tom Garvey (was on the City of Janesville interview Committee) I was offered the job and accepted. Fast forward over 26 years, I am still employed as the Electrical Inspector for the City of Janesville. During this entire time in the Electrical business, as an Electrician and as an Electrical Inspector, I have always been aware of the IAEI. Initially Reggie Kilps (Electrical Inspector for the City of Madison & City of Fitchburg) encouraged my Dad to join the IAEI for the educational opportunities with the seminars and the great educational Articles within the magazine. After Dad joined the IAEI, he would read the magazine and learned many good ideas and became much better versed in the Code thanks to the IAEI. After becoming an Electrical Inspector, my Supervisor (Christine Wilson) at the City of Janesville insisted that I join and participate with the Wisconsin Chapter IAEI. They had previous Electrical Inspectors as members, and therefore knew the benefits of the IAEI for the educational opportunities, the networking opportunities and the ability to make friendships with other Inspectors, Electricians, Contractors, Manufacturers, Listing Agencies and many others within the Electrical field. That is what I think the IAEI represents best, the training, the educational materials the IO produces, the networking the Chapter and Section meeting allow, and of course the famous Wisconsin R&R room. Connie and myself have made so many great friends over the years, I have gained a lot of my knowledge in interpreting Codes from so many IAEI members, such as Ray Weber, Tom Garvey, Ed Lawry, Bill Neitzel, Tom Moore, Tom Lichtenstein, Chris Dodge, Joe Hertel and many more, for that I say Thank You for taking time to teach and mentor me in this business. As Inspectors and members of the IAEI, that should be our focus, provide the younger Inspectors and Electricians, taking the time to mentor and educate, not only on the Codes, but on the approach of inspecting electrical wiring. Education should always be our 1st approach when discovering violations on projects, and like Reggie Kilps, encourage the younger Inspectors and Electricians to join the IAEI for all of the opportunities the IAEI can provide them like it has us over the years. Again, thank you to all of the members of the Wisconsin Chapter for their support over the many years, I am also grateful to all of the members of the Western Section IAEI for the opportunity to serve as your President for the next year. As a team, we can make the Western Section bigger and better than last year, and we always need to strive to make this Organization, the IAEI, more inviting for those younger folks we have following in our footsteps.