In January 2016, Dave Opie walked into Clarke Electric Cooperative’s back door and down a familiar hallway to his new office. Everything about the place was familiar except for his role and where his office was located.

Now, after serving 10 years as Clarke Electric’s general manager, and five years previously as its manager of finance, Dave will close his office door for the last time when he retires at the end of this month.

You could say that poles and wires were always a part of Dave’s life. As a teen in the early 1970s, he worked for a contractor to treat utility poles on rural roads. More specifically, Dave removed dirt from around aged poles so another worker could apply creosote to protect against decay, insect and weather damage.

“It was kind of lonely work,” he said. “But it paid well - $2 an hour!”

In his later teen years, Dave worked for a commercial landscaper, where his job duties were much more diverse and “never boring”.

“One odd project we did as contractors was to wreck line,” he said. “We had a retired lineman pull down the old conductor and I would wrap a chain around the pole. Then we used an old boomwinch truck from the 1950s to pull the pole. We weren’t very safe, but it was my first exposure to supervising employees and crews.”

The job and his boss, Gary Stevenson, taught him some valuable life lessons.

“Gary taught me how to respect people,” Dave said. “He taught me how to work long, hard hours in tough conditions, but to always have an element of fun, too.”

Dave continued working manual labor jobs during the day while earning his degree in accounting and finance at night. His career includes 25 years of handson experience with financial management and human resources in and around Des Moines, working for United Way of Central Iowa, Vision Point Productions, Inc., and Advanced Network Technologies.

Dave was Clarke Electric’s CFO from 2009-2014, then returned in 2016, and immediately got to work building a united, healthy, and satisfying work culture.

“As CFO, I was so impressed with the dedication and loyalty of these workers,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t be as good as they were, and I couldn’t eliminate the hardships they endured, but I could do everything possible to make their work environment as positive as I could.”

A remodel of the coop’s headquarters in 2021 infused new life into the 1954 building. Bright colors, a modernized office space layout, and artwork throughout that reinforces CEC’s mission now serve as visual reminders that the co-op, and its employees, work to serve its members.

This cohesiveness was on display when, in 2025, coop employees gifted Dave a 1959 Cherry Sunburst Les Paul electric guitar for Christmas. As a musician, Dave said the gesture was “about the most humbling moment in my professional career.”

In fact, playing more guitar and piano, as well as mountain biking and camping out West are on Dave’s retirement agenda. But what he’s looking forward to most is spending more time with his wife of 40 years, Lee Anne.

As he closes this chapter of his life and hands the GM title over to Chad McIntosh, Dave said he couldn’t be prouder of Clarke Electric employees.

“We are like one, big, championship team,” he said. “I’m so thankful they put up with me and all my antics, even when it came down to ‘where the rubber meets the road.’ The staff – inside and outside – continually impressed me with what they accomplished. I can’t wait to see what they do next.”