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It was the early 1930s, and young Joseph Zorko had seen the reality of the Great Depression first-hand. Times were tough in Uintah Basin of eastern Utah, and electricity was slow in coming to this rural region.
Having only an 8th grade education, Joe was determined that he could make something of himself in the electrical industry, so he traveled to Los Angeles and attended National Electrical, Radio, and Automotive School, graduating in 1937.
Armed with his diploma and a bunch of ambition, Joe took a job in Ely, Nevada, as an appliance and radio technician, married his teenage sweetheart Margaret Dart, and within a few years began working as a lineman for Ely Light and Power.
With the outbreak of WWII, the local draft board figured Joe would be of greater value on the home front working high voltage lines than he would be in military service. As it turned out, with the shortage of skilled electricians in rural Nevada, Joe found himself working high-voltage for ELP during the day, and low-voltage for home and business owners in the evenings.
Before
long it was
apparent
to Joe and
Margaret
that Joe's
time was
being better
spent in
service to
individual
customers
than it was
in high-voltage
transmission,
so together
they formed
Zorko Electric,
Inc. in 1945.
Since ZEI
was one of
the only
electrical
contracting
firms in
the county,
it didn't
take long
for clientele
to develop.
Margaret
saw opportunity
as well,
extending
the business
to include
a retail
appliance
and gift
store.
In
1971, the
Zorko's son-in-law
Sid Vander
Weide joined
the business
in Ely, having
been recently
laid-off
from a career
in aerospace
in Seattle,
Washington.
By
the mid 70s
it was time
for Joe to
retire, and
so Zorko
Electric
moved on
to the second
generation
of Sid and
his wife,
Peggy. The
company continued
with business
as usual
until the
Vander Weides,
homesick
for the Pacific
Northwest,
relocated
to Redmond,
Washington
in 1982.
Zorko Electric,
a fixture
of the business
community
of Eastern
Nevada for
37 years,
started over
again, building
a reputation
and customer
base that
would allow
the company
a chance
to move on
to a third
generation.
In February
of 1993,
that chance
came in the
form of Sid's
oldest son,
Kent.
Kent had spent the previous decade working for other electrical contractors in Seattle, gaining experience in project management, engineering, and field supervision. It was a natural fit for father and son to expand the company together into what it is today.
Today, Zorko Electric is a family-owned business spanning 60 years and three generations. It offers a team of over 20 skilled technicians who specialize in commercial electrical systems and offer quality service throughout the Puget Sound region.
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