CONTACT:                                                                           APRIL 21, 2011

Barbara Uebelacker
Communications Specialist
(866) 752-4550 - office

(608) 295-8063
BarbU@rock.coop

Co‐op Founder’s Son Retires After 40 Years as Director

JANESVILLE, Wis.—Stan Dybevik inherited his dedication to the rural electrification movement and his role as a political junkie from his father, J. B. Dybevik, one of the founders of Rock County Electric Cooperative Association.

Stan was about 6 years old when his father started talking about getting electricity to their house in Spring Valley Township, northwest of Orfordville.

“My dad went out and started organizing and contacting neighbors to see if they could get an electric cooperative going, which of course meant nothing to me,” Dybevik, now 82, recalls. “He just told me we were going to get lights.”

Dybevik remembers the excitement when the lights first came on and his father’s dream of electrifying the countryside became a reality. He and his wife, Liz, live in the house that served as his childhood home. “In fact, I still sleep in the same bedroom where I was born,” he says.

The couple will continue to be members of Rock Energy Cooperative, but Dybevik has retired from the board of directors after 40 years of service, including 14 years as chairman, 16 years as secretary and several years as treasurer.

“Rock Energy has benefitted immensely during Stan’s 40 years of service to the co‐op,” said Shane Larson, chief executive officer. “He is one of the most committed board members I have ever encountered, and I admire his ability to look into the future to see what’s best for the co‐op. His loyalty, dedication and enthusiasm will be deeply missed.”

When asked to join the board in 1971, Dybevik was pleased to follow in the footsteps of his father, who served as director for 25 years, from 1936 to 1961. In the co‐op’s 75‐year history, there have been only 10 years, from 1961 to 1971, when a Dybevik was not on the board.

Dybevik is tremendously proud that his father was one of the co‐op’s founders.

“I think one of the greatest things that have happened in this country is rural electrification,” he said. “It’s been just a wonderful thing to light up the skies at night in the rural areas. I often wonder what my dad would think if he were alive today to see the changes that have occurred over the years.”

Having served on the board for 40 years, Dybevik was instrumental in many of those changes. The biggest was on Feb. 6, 2007, when RCECA bought the territory and facilities of South Beloit Water, Gas and Electric from Alliant Energy. The acquisition resulted in the co‐op adding 18,000 residential and
commercial electric and natural gas accounts in northern Illinois, nearly tripling the membership roster.

Dybevik, who was chairman at the time, calls the two‐year run‐up to the acquisition “the most exciting and interesting period since the co‐op’s inception in 1936.”

When Dybevik attended his first board meeting on Jan. 29, 1971, he never expected to remain on the board for 40 years. He says there isn’t anything magical about the number 40. When he ran for re-election three years ago, he just decided that this term would be his last.

This is actually Dybevik’s second retirement. In 1996, he retired from the U.S. Postal Service after working as a rural mail carrier for 28 years. That retirement allowed him to spend even more time on coop business and get more involved in the state and national organizations. He was elected to a three-year term on the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association Board in 2006. During his term, he served as vice chairman for one year and was a member of the WECA legislative committee and the Federated Youth Foundation Board, which oversees the money used for scholarship and community projects.

Dybevik’s second retirement will allow him and his wife to do more traveling and spend more time with their six grandchildren, who range in age from 2½ to 22. He also plans to continue gardening and doing projects around the house.

At Dybevik’s last board meeting, directors reminisced while watching a slide show of his years on the board.

“I’ve been very, very happy and proud to have been a part of the cooperative,” he says. “It’s been a terrific experience. It’s just a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

But Dybevik says his retirement is bittersweet because he will miss the people he has worked so closely with for the past four decades. He has always said that the best part about being a director is “just being part of a great national movement and the co‐op family, serving with so many great directors and
employees.”

And his co‐op family certainly will miss him. Perhaps Marian Trescher, longtime friend of the Dybeviks and current co‐op secretary, says it best: “Stan has done a wonderful job and has given so much to the cooperative. We can’t replace that, and we sure are going to miss him. He’s been wonderful for the coop,
and his wife, Liz, has been a great support person.”

Established in 1936, Rock Energy Cooperative is a not‐for‐profit utility distributing safe and reliable electricity and natural gas to more than 27,000 meters across its nine‐county service area in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Headquartered in Janesville, Wis., the cooperative also has an office in South Beloit, Ill. For more information, visit www.rock.coop.

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