Telephone Collectors International
Our Board of Directors
Last update Oct 22, 2024
| Telephone Collectors InternationalOur Board of Directors | First Posted June 26, 2013 Last update Oct 22, 2024 |
Shane Young, 2026
USA
I am Principal Voice Architect for a large CLEC. I am also one of the volunteer coordinators for C*Net (The Collectors' Network).
My telephone collecting hobby started at around age 7, when our family moved Wawina, Minnesota, a rural town in northern Minnesota. I was given a couple of Stromberg Carlson desk telephones by Bob Riddell, who owned Northern Telephone Company (the local ILEC), and who had come to install our new telephone service. Bob showed me how I could connect the two phones together with some batteries. At that point, I think I was hooked on phones, and wanted to work for the telephone company when I grew up.
When I was about 10 or 11, Bob helped me build my first single-link dial system. At about age 13, the main dirt-road through Wawina was widened and paved, requiring both the local and toll cables to be replaced. My parents took me out of school for two days, to assist Bob with the splicing of the new cables.
At about 22 years of age, I had designed and planned Northern's digital conversion from a Federal/ITT step by-step office to a recently acquired Redcom MDX384.
One of my primary interests in the collecting community is with switching. This includes manual (magneto and common battery) switchboards, electro-mechanical central offices and PBXs, as well as analog and digital electronic central offices and PBXs.
I don't have a specific phone that I would say is my favorite, but I might lean towards 1A2-type telephones, more than others.
Dennis Hock, 2025
Michigan, USA
I am a past President of TCI. I worked for some 36 years in Telecom, have been a member of TCI for 34 years since its inception and collect a bit of everything. A particular interest is researching rural telephony - - especially understanding the details of how service was extended into rural areas of the country. I also enjoy penning stories of my adventures in telecom for publication in the TCI Singing Wires newsletter.
I enjoy engaging in spirited group discussions when I have something to contribute, and feel good when we discover and share new sources of information. Finally I am on C*Net, the Collectors Network.
Rick Miles 2026
San Diego, CA. USA
My first job in telephony was as a thin-film engineer at the Indianapolis Works of Western Electric; my last job was as a technical writer/manager for Qualcomm (maker of cell-phone chips) in San Diego. Western Electric Indianapolis made ALL the telephones for the Bell System.
Even though I worked for six non-telephone companies between Western Electric and Qualcomm, I never stopped enjoying telephony. Now, through TCI, I get to know telephone collectors, a special group of knowledgeable, dedicated, and obsessive folks who put unbelievable amounts of work into, and gladly share, their private collections of phones, switching equipment, and expertise.
In addition to being TCI secretary, I also work on Singing Wires, TCI's newsletter, where I write, edit, and stamp out typos. Finally, I get to put my 30+ years as a technical writer to good use.
Vaughan Rider, 2027
USA
I was born and raised in smalltown Ohio, and that is where my love for all things telephone began. It was the mid-sixties; I was eleven years old.
My first phone was an Automatic Electric 40 that had been left at my grandmother's house in the country when she moved into town. In the seventies I fed my habit at Olson Electronics, and later at some of the independent telephone distributors and telephone supply houses of the time. I also spent some of my spare time hooking up "illegal" extension telephones for friends and relatives. After graduating from Ohio University, I moved west to Hollywood. In the eighties my collection continued evolving and expanding, and in the early nineties I first became involved in our collector clubs.
Since then, I've attended nearly every collector's show in California, and true to my midwestern roots, I've attended many shows in the Ohio/Michigan/Indiana/Kentucky area.
My favorite telephones have always been all the wonderful color varieties from the fifties through the seventies, encompassing all manufacturers. But I've also branched out well beyond those boundaries.
It is imperative that our club continues to grow and thrive, and to accomplish this I feel we must continue to embrace today's, as well as tomorrow's, technologies to preserve, inspire, and educate. In that way tomorrow's generations will be able to understand and build upon our love for the telephone and communications history of yesterday. We must continue the heritage of preservation we have so proudly established.
Valerie Flores, 2025
USA
I started collecting when I was seventeen years old. I was a junior in high school at the time, and my favorite class was AP US History. I liked it so much that I was always ahead by one chapter by taking notes prior to class. Because I already knew what the teacher was talking about during class, it allowed me to research things that I found interesting. While my teacher was talking about the Louisiana Purchase, I looked up 'Bell' since I knew he invented the telephone. From there, I fell down a rabbit hole and began to learn about the telephone system specifically the Bell System which was completely foreign to me. I attended my first TCI show that year and purchased a green 702B and began to tinker with it. I had never seen a princess phone before, and I knew nothing about relays or even the name of any of the components.
Now, three years later, there are still many things to learn and collect! My favorites in my collection include a very special black refurbished 702B, and my very first 702B which I purchased from the JKL museum. Despite never being on a board, I believe that I can offer some valuable skills. I am confident with social media, specifically Tik-Tok, and have informed many people my age (about 32,000) about the hobby of telephone collecting. I've also volunteered with the U.S. Army and assisted them with their extensive archival process, and I believe that my computer skills can assist with the process of archiving material for future generations. I am currently a tax intern for a small local firm in Monterey, California.
Allen Goldberg, 2027
USA
Growing up in the beginning of the space age, I was always interested in science and technology, especially astronomy, but not particularly in telephones. For all I knew, the phone system was so complex that only those in the Bell System could understand it.
That myth ended my first week in college. Fellow students explained how two wires do it all. Clever but knowable. Just look at the well-worn November 1960 BSTJ, Bell System Technical Journal, in the engineering library for signaling, and browse for more. I was hooked. Although a physics major, EEs, Electrical Engineers, and others who understood both the theory and practice of telephony were around, some from being co-op students at Bell Labs, some operating the campus PAX, and others quite effectively hacking.
I practiced 1A2 installations illicitly before protective connections, and legitimately after. I still have my first phone, a venerable ITT 832-05 speakerphone.
Despite my interest, I was never "in the industry". I've enjoyed a career in sensors and satellite systems engineering.
I joined TCI about 2006 when I made more time for the phones. I attended the Eastern national shows most years, and a few regional shows. My collecting interest remains the phones I grew up with, mostly key systems, and items illustrating ideas that built the system. I enjoy assembling working systems, understanding the how and why of communication. The people and library of TCI have helped immensely my learning and doing. Understanding these technologies has helped me as a working engineer.
I work on better ways to communicate to the public historical telephony's value. For example, POTS telephony can provide real world example for STEM. The national and regional events can be more than just swap meets or strolls down memory lane, providing features geared to the public. Many members lament losing hobbyists, but there may be ways to reach potential new entrants. Maybe build an informational video blog series of the basics of telephony and collecting, and personal stories. Of course, my first priority will be maintaining what we have that works.
Mike Hinton, 2027
USA
I've been a member of TCI for 25 years. I'm a field service engineer with Thermo Fisher Scientific with a tenure of 46 years. Growing up in the 1960s, I was the technical-minded kid in our family and loved anything involving electricity and magnets. During that time children would often count things while riding in a car to ease the boredom. What did I count? I counted telephone booths! Unknown to me at that time, the groundwork was being laid to become a collector.
I'm fond of the desk and wall sets from the 1930s to the 1980s. It's hard to pick a favorite but my clear 1958 WE 500 would be one of them. There's just something about it that draws me in like a moth to flame. I have also come to realize that the stories you share and people that you meet from being a collector over the years are also part of my collection, actually the best part.
I enjoy setting up displays and demos of the telephones and showing kids how to use them, and then letting them make a real call on a rotary dial. They often jump when they hear those brass bells ring!
I want to see the club remain vibrant with membership always strong so that what we have won't be lost. I especially want to explore ways for youth involvement so they can experience the history of telephones and become part of TCI's future.
Joshua Meyers, 2025
USA
My name is Joshua Meyers of Kimberly, Wisconsin, I grew up in Mercersburg, PA and started collecting telephones when I was about 7. My collection has grown over the years to around 200 telephones, including 1A1 key equipment and several Call Directors, also several wood wall phones. My favorite phones are the Stromberg Carlson 1543 and 1553 along with the Ericofon. My goal is to have phones that work and not just look pretty.
I began my career in Telecommunications in 1997. My partner (Mike) and I moved to Wisconsin in 2017 when I took a position at AIT Business Technologies as a Senior Telephone Engineer.
I originally found out about TCI from a story WGAL Channel 8 ran about the Lancaster TCI Show, I attended that show and joined as a member of TCI, I attended the Lancaster show yearly until moving to Wisconsin. Along with TCI, and attending the Lancaster show, I have been to the Cincinnati (Erlanger) show and Mattoon, IL I am also a member of the ATCA and have attended the Shipshewana show as often as I can
John Stallone, 2027
USA
I have been a life-long telephone collector and career telephone company employee with Verizon and also at AT&T. I was first infected with the telephone virus at age 4 and have never recovered.
My earliest memories are of little green telephone company vans parked outside by a deli where my grandmother lived every morning. I could see from the window and would ask, "Hey nana to take me to see them." What I didn't know was that my uncle worked for the Telephone Company so my attraction to the telephone must be a hereditary trait. She would take me over to see them and she would ask if they had anything they could give to me and wouldn't you know they did!!!! I was hooked ever since.
Telephones have a magical attraction and if you're one of the lucky people who love them as I do you know what I mean.
This is something that our hobby needs, by reaching out to our younger generation we can carry on the hobby of preserving the past through antique telephone collecting and all the additional items associated with it.
I have been a past member of both clubs and I found that TCI is the best organization to advance our hobby into the future. I am uniquely positioned to help through the Telephone Pioneer Museum where our goal is to be the prime resource for historical information.
Remco Enthoven *
California, USA
I started my career in telecommunications almost 30 years ago. I worked for KPN, a huge Dutch/Netherlands corporation that provides most of the PSTN, ISDN, VOIP and mobile phone service in the Netherlands. I worked in the department that manages most of the Netherlands' transmission of cable and other television and radio signals. Before I started working at KPN, I had a four-month internship at the Dutch national telephone company and served one year in the Dutch army signal corps. I am one of the founders the Dutch Telephone Museum Foundation.
For the past five years, I have been employed as the curator of the JKL Telephone Museum in northern California. I am proud to say that I have played a significant role in the re-establishment of the JKL Museum after the original museum was totally consumed by fire in September, 2015, just two months after I arrived to assume the role of curator.
I have been collecting telephones since 1999. I own a small in-house museum in the Netherlands with various wood, metal, Bakelite and plastic phones from all over the world, and other telephony related collectables.The people I meet are what I enjoy most about our hobby. Some have become close friends and many have been of great help to me. I am very committed to TCI and would like to continue to provide my services as a board member in addition to my other TCI roles as one of the webmasters, online librarian, and editor of Singing Wires.
Gary Goff *
The Membership Chairperson has been an appointed position the past ten plus years, which provides stability in this important role. The volunteer in this position is primarily responsible for processing membership renewals on an annual basis, enrolling new members, and keeping the membership database up to date and accurate. In addition, the position has for well over ten years included the packaging and mailing of the monthly newsletter. For the past several years I have also been a member of the editorial group who publish our newsletter, Singing Wires.
Paul Wills *
Coatesville, PA. USA
I am a member of the Show and Events committee that has the responsibility for budgeting, coordinating and staffing the TCI sponsored shows.
I have been a member of Telephone Collectors International since the mid 1980's and started as an "on and off" show host since the St. Davids Show in September 1991.
TCI's strength lies in its volunteers. We are always looking for more members to serve as show hosts to help with our existing shows and to propose new shows throughout the country.
If you're interested in becomming involved, be sure to contact me at the email address above.
