Company owners Don and Nadine Stuck pose in the parts and equipment room at Stuck Electric in Sheridan. The couple took over the business in 1965.

Marcus Larson / News-Register

Nadine Thomas and Don Stuck about to leave for a Sheridan High School dance in 1954. The couple wed the following year.

Submitted Photo

Frank Stuck co-founded Stuck Bros. Electric Co. with his brother, Cliff, in 1943.

Submitted Photo

Frank Stuck’s children sit on the running board of the company’s first truck. Left to right: Gil, Phil, Dian, and Don.

Submitted Photo

A crew lays the foundation for Stuck Cable Co.’s TV reception tower on Cherry Hill northeast of Sheridan in 1955. Don Stuck, then 19, is on the left.

Submitted Photo

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It sounds like an idyllic rarity, almost too good to be true. But that's what life has been like for Don and Nadine Stuck of Sheridan.

As owners and operators of Stuck Electric since 1965, they have worked hard to create what others might call good fortune.

Luck does favor people now and again, but mostly, you make your own. And that's obviously what they have done.

While keeping their company in the black over the years, they have always given back to their community. That seems to come naturally for them, as if there were never any question about it.

For Nadine, a close attachment to Sheridan and its citizens can't be denied. As a native, it's in her blood.

Having been born in Kansas, Don can't claim quite as intimate an attachment. But he's more than made up for it since arriving with his family in 1943.

How the Stucks came to live in Sheridan is an interesting story of its own.

Don's father, Frank, learned the ropes as a power company lineman in Nebraska. The massive Grand Coulee Dam project lured him to eastern Washington in 1941.

Within a year, he went from installing high voltage lines to working at the Portland Air Base as the war effort ramped up. With the passage of another year, he began pondering the next step in his career.

Rather than seek employment elsewhere in the country, Stuck made a bold, entrepreneurial move.

Many smaller Pacific Northwest cities were growing, but had no local electrical contractors. He talked his older brother, Cliff, into joining with him to establish one.

The brothers set their sights on the northern Willamette Valley. Both McMinnville and Albany stood out as promising places for them to set up shop.

When they couldn't make up their minds, they decided to flip a coin. McMinnville won the toss.

So it was strictly by chance - perhaps the only time in Don and Nadine's lives where sheer luck determined their fate - that the Stucks ended up in the Yamhill Valley.

Don Stuck and Nadine Thomas were both born in 1936. She was in the class behind him, though. So even though the Sheridan farm girl and the transplanted Midwesterner attended the same grade school, they didn't meet until high school.

He was a sophomore, she a freshman, when they first connected in 1951. Before you knew it, they were an item.

They married four years later, with Don's employment at Stuck Electric providing them with enough income to set up their own household.

In those days, electrical contractors not only did commercial and residential installation and repair, they also sold small appliances. Don's uncle suffered a broken back in 1950, so the young man assumed both in-store and on-site responsibilities.

He had been assisting with the business from the time he was 14, learning to be an electrician in the time-honored apprenticeship tradition.

"I caught on to it pretty quickly," he said. "Fortunately, I seem to have a knack for that sort of thing."

Nadine joined her husband in the office, showing her own aptitude for customer service, business operations and recordkeeping. But the energy and talents of the two 19-year-olds would soon be put to the test.

Television came to Portland in 1953, but outlying towns like Sheridan couldn't pick up the signal. Stuck and son decided to fill the void by constructing a tower on Cherry Hill and offering TV service to area residents under the Stuck Cable Co. name.

"We used RG11 coaxial cable to connect homes," Don said. "We paid the power company a flat fee per pole per year."

Running two companies simultaneously might seem a bit daunting for a small family operation. But owing to their similar nature, the personnel, trucks and equipment proved interchangeable. Crews could sometimes even do double-duty in the field.

Frank Stuck passed away in 1965, leaving his son and daughter-in-law to continue on their own. For 46 years, Stuck Cable provided cable television service from Sheridan to Grand Ronde.

The Stucks sold to Wave Communications in 2001. That company became Willamette Broadband, which was recently acquired by Uvision LLC. Uvision is a cable TV and Internet provider using fiber-optic technology.

Don and Nadine said they toyed with the idea of staying in the business, but ultimately negotiated a deal rather than make the substantial investment it would take to move from copper to fiber.

Work was far from the only thing that occupied the Stucks' time and energy over the course of those years. By the age of 25, they had brought five children into the world and become very interested in local youth sports.

Stuck Electric donated money to Sheridan High School's baseball program and sponsored Little League teams.

From 1992 to 1999, Nadine nearly single-handedly raised or donated the funds to develop a new baseball facility. And despite her protests, other local leaders insisted on naming it Stuck Stadium.

She also served as president of the West Valley Chamber of Commerce in the mid 1980s, when the organization encompassed both Sheridan and Willamina.

After building a new headquarters on West Main Street in 1984, the Stucks bought a nearby building as an investment. They have since donated use of that building, rent-free, to Grand Sheramina Family Services.

Stroll for Santa, Sheridan's annual Christmas decorating program, wouldn't be possible without the Stucks. Their crews put up the decorations each year, and they provide storage space for them the rest of the year.

The Stucks also donate their company's services to Sheridan for its Sheridan Days celebration and Willamina for its Christmas and Fourth of July celebrations.

These are just some highlights of the Stucks' community commitment.

Volunteering for Boy and Girl scouts, serving on the park commission and supporting virtually every local event can be added to the list. "We chip in whenever asked," Don said.

As for the future of Stuck Electric, Don and Nadine are now 73, but have no plans to retire any time soon. They count on other family members to keep things going when they head out to their cabin on Lake Billy Chinook for a few days.

Daughter Teresa Weiher has been serving as office manager since 1991.

Grandsons Aaron Klemmer and Marcus Cox are full-time members of the electrical crew. In the family tradition, they learned the trade on the job from grandpa and long-time employee Don Cooley.

"We have a solid base of customers," Don Stuck said. "Some of them have been with us from the beginning.

"We make about 1,200 calls a year. That keeps everybody pretty busy."