The Countdown Begins!

This coming week (May 2 to be exact!) marks the 6 month count down to the official 100th anniverary date of Pioneers founding on November 2, 1911.

The events leading up to our founding were truly the result of  Henry Pope’s remarkable idea to keep the past alive. In 1910 Henry Pope was nearing the end of his long and successful career in the telephone business. An entire generation had already grown up with the telephone, and the advancements in those three short decades were astounding—more than 5.1 million Bell System phones were already in service, not to mention the phones of several thousand independent telephone companies.  

As Pope was reminiscing, he couldn’t help but wonder about all the other telephone pioneers he had known and worked with through the years. He thought it would be interesting to make a list of all the former co-workers he could remember, and he enlisted the help of two other long-time telephone employees, Charles Truex and Thomas Doolittle.

As the list circulated over the next few months, another idea began to take shape—forming an official organization and seeing how many veterans of the early days they could bring together in celebration of their many years of service. They ran their idea past Theodore Vail, the president of AT&T, who was so intrigued by the idea.  In March 1911, Pope followed up with a letter to prospective members.   By May, the list  had more than 200 names, and by October, it had grown to more than 400.

A meeting was organized, and “The First Annual Reunion of the Telephone Pioneers of America” was held on November 2 and 3 at the Hotel Somerset in Boston, with 244 members in attendance.  At this first meeting, the Pioneers reviewed and discussed the proposed constitution and by-laws and also elected a slate of officers. Vail was named president, W.T. Gentry was named vVice president, and Pope was named secretary/treasurer. Although Vail was absent from the first two meetings, he sent these inspiring words to Pioneers at the second meeting, in New York in 1912:  “There is much to do yet, and most of you, though Pioneers, have the youth and health and possibility of still doing and helping others, those who are to be the doers of the future.”

Today, 100 successful years into the future Vail spoke of, some things have changed, but Pioneers remain true to Article 1 of the original Constitution of the Telephone Pioneers of America:“The Association is formed for the purpose of recalling and perpetuating the facts, traditions, and memories attaching to the early history of the telephone and the telephone system; preserving the names and records of the participants in the establishment and extension of this great system of electrical intercommunication; the promotion, renewal, and continuance of the friendships and fellowships made during the progress of the telephone industry between those interested therein; and the encouragement of such other meritorious objects consistent with the foregoing as may be desirable.”

In the weeks and months ahead, stay tuned for more "moments" in Pioneers' history and opportunities to get involved in this momentous anniversary celebration as the countdown to our Boston Centennial Celebration begins!