Leighton Russell is vice president of Tabor Electric which handled temporary power for construction of the stadium. Photo by Jon Savelle

Langston Tabor founded his company nearly 25 years ago soon after he returned from Africa, where as a graduate student and intern he observed black engineers and technicians working on the Akasombo Dam in Ghana.

Tabor found it difficult to break into the business but was determined to succeed. He had no formal training as an electrician when he discovered this Catch 22: In order to become an electrician, you had to be hired on and serve as an apprentice, but to be hired on as an apprentice, you needed the experience of working as an electrician.

So Tabor started his own firm, hired journeymen electricians and learned the craft on-the-job from his employees. "I was both their boss and their student," Tabor recounted to Touching Base, the PFD's newsletter, earlier this year just before his untimely death at age 56.

Today Tabor Electric is a full service company, offering a range of services including engineering, construction, installation, maintenance and remodeling for the commercial, industrial and residential markets.

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