The IBEW's Tenth District lost one of its most colorful yet respected foreman trainers in January when Charlotte, N.C., Local 379 Assistant Manager Business Manager Edgar W. Brown died suddenly at 66.

"Edgar was deeply thoughtful, passionate and practical," said Tenth District International Vice President Brent Hall, whose jurisdiction includes North Carolina. "His mission was seeing to the success of the IBEW and its members, and his considerable knowledge and charisma left a memorable impression on everyone he met."

Brown had been a traveler for most of his four-decade IBEW career, said Rebecca Axford, an international representative in the IBEW's Education Department.

"Along the way, he'd discovered the importance of programs like the Foreman's Development Series and the Code of Excellence," she said.

FDS is a training curriculum that was launched in the union's Seventh District in 2010 in an effort to develop new generations of highly trained foremen.

The IBEW's Code of Excellence, developed in the Eighth District in 2006 and introduced union-wide the following year, helps build positive attitudes about the union's members and their work by ensuring high worker and workplace standards.

"Edgar had a passion for FDS and the Code of Excellence," said Tenth District International Representative Tommy Hill. "Both of these programs fit hand in glove."

Axford agreed. "Edgar became a huge advocate of both programs, seeing them as instrumental to the success of local unions and the IBEW," she said. "He was like the IBEW's version of Johnny Appleseed, going place to place to promote them."

Several years ago, Brown stopped traveling and went to work at Local 379, the same local where his father and two brothers had been members. He quickly became renowned throughout the district for his unique instruction style, particularly when it came to his enthusiasm for the Foreman's Development Series.

Before FDS, there had been almost no professional or in-house foreman training anywhere in the IBEW. Foremen, who essentially have one foot in labor and one in management, were largely tasked to learn the job on the job.

In the late 2000s, then-Seventh District International Vice President Jonathon Gardner decided that an IBEW-led best-practices program would solve these supervisory issues and help locals successfully bid for work.

Gardner worked with IBEW members like Seventh District International Representative Gary Buresh and Albuquerque, N.M., Local 611's Tom Ross, along with other training and development experts, to devise a modular program to help prepare foreman candidates to face a variety of real-world construction job scenarios.

Hill, who was Local 379's business manager when Brown was hired, said a scarcity of supervisors had occasionally plagued his local, too.

"Our E-board had been talking with one of our contractors," Hill said. "They were complaining about not having enough trained foremen."

Around the same time, then-Business Manager Hill ran into Buresh at an IBEW Construction and Maintenance Conference in Washington, D.C. They talked about FDS as they shared a taxi ride.

It wasn't long after Hall became international vice president in 2015 and Hill was appointed as an international representative that the Tenth District adopted FDS.

"We've got all this work coming," Hill recalled Hall saying. "We can't let it go just because we don't have qualified supervisors."

Axford praised Hall's willingness to try something different with FDS. "He is someone who makes sure everyone has the tools and training they need," she said.

Hired in 2016 as Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Local 553's training director, Axford was soon introduced to Brown.

"Because of our experience and shared passion for FDS, I was selected to instruct with Edgar," she said. "I deeply respected his desire to grow the IBEW. And I loved that you could not put Edgar in a box. He had such a rich history, and he constantly surprised you with his perspective. He was such a character."

Hill recalled one example of Brown's distinctiveness. "We were in an airport, just talking," he said. Brown's booming voice, though, carried over to a nearby passenger, who asked Brown to keep it down.

"We don't want to hear you," she said.

An unfazed Brown replied, "Ma'am, that's just the way I talk!"

Scott Thrower, who succeeded Hill as business manager of Local 379 in 2019, noted how Brown enjoyed talking about the Code and FDS. "To him, they were a little bit of common sense in a world of craziness."

Thrower said that Brown also would distribute business-size cards that he'd had printed at his own expense containing motivational reminders. On one side, the card read, "OWN IT — Own who you are! Own what you do! Own your responsibility! Own YOU." Printed on the other side: "Let go of who's right and focus on what's right."

"He was a good guy," Thrower said. "We were as close as colleagues can be. I truly miss him."

To honor Brown's memory and legacy, Hall recently authorized the production of a Tenth District FDS challenge coin featuring Brown's face minted on one side.

"Edgar wanted FDS to go to the next level, to be embraced by all the districts. He wanted to leave the union better than he found it," Axford said. "He was passionate about the work without wanting to tie it to himself personally.

"He would be so proud of the work we're continuing," she said.

Read more about FDS's origins in the March 2023 Electrical Worker.

Teresa Baranowski was an excellent student and standout soccer player at Lake Central High School in northwest Indiana near Chicago.

She was accepted into St. Mary's, a women's liberal arts college affiliated with Notre Dame, with plans to study forensic science.

"But I went to this apprenticeship school for electricians, and I found that it was far more fascinating and $100,000 cheaper," she told the Lake Central school newspaper during her senior year in 2014, referring to a visit she made to the IBEW local in her area.

"With this, I will be working hands on and learning at the same time. I want to get ahead of life rather than be set back in debt."

Nearly a decade later, Baranowski is a journeyman wireman and member of Gary and Hammond, Ind., Local 697 and the winner of the Unions Power America People's Choice Award by Union Plus, along with the $10,000 prize that goes with it. She is one of four IBEW members who were winners in Union Plus' annual contests, including Chester, Pa., Local 654 member Steven Tyson, the $40,000 grand prize winner of the Unions Power America Sweepstakes.

Baranowski already has worked as a general foreman. She recently became an instructor in Local 697's night classes after attending the National Training Institute in Ann Arbor, Mich.

She also is a leader in RENEW and the Women's Committee, helping to attract more women to the trades. She's involved in several projects in the community with her IBEW brothers and sisters, making a concerted effort to get younger apprentices more involved in Local 697.

All that good work was recognized with the Union Plus Award. Baranowski was one of four finalists for the honor, based on having an inspiring story of compassion and community service. She was chosen in a vote of union members across the country.

"She's kind of the ideal member," Local 697 Business Manager Phil Hernandez said. "Even when she was an apprentice, she showed an interest in volunteering. She thrives on the job. People have nothing but praise for her work ethic. There's not enough positive things you can say about her."

Baranowski grew up in a union family. Her father is a Bricklayers member, and her mother works for an accounting firm used by unions in northwest Indiana.

When she was 16, she tagged along when her mom took her younger brother for a visit to Local 697's hall, thinking it might spark an interest in him becoming an electrician.

Instead, the brother went to college and earned an engineering degree. The older sister had a blast and knew what she wanted to do.

"I really liked working on cars in high school," Baranowski said. "When I went on that tour, I knew this was the place for me.

"Then, when they told me I could get an associate degree in applied science and get certified in welding so I could work in the mills and the refineries around here, it was like getting a double degree. That was awesome."

Baranowski was a founder of the local's Women's Committee, which is called the Sisters of 697. Local 697 has doubled its number of women members during the committee's four years of existence, she said.

"When I got in, I was the only female in my [apprenticeship] class," Baranowski said. "Now, it seems like there are two or three in every class. We want to keep that going."

The committee members sponsor an annual fishing outing, with proceeds going to a Local 697 member in need. They put up a pallet in the union hall for members to donate items to an emergency facility for abused women and their children, then loaded the goods into trucks and delivered them. They brought Halloween bags to children staying there during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They have collected clothes for a nearby homeless shelter. They brought gifts and gift cards for children staying at another shelter that burned to the ground. They volunteer their time to upgrade electrical work at public parks, veterans' homes and citizens in need.

"If there is someone who reaches out to us and they need us, we try to do the best we can to help them," she said.

Former Local 697 Business Manager Ryan Reithel, who now serves as senior executive assistant to the international secretary-treasurer, said Baranowski is an ideal member to emulate.

"It's almost impossible to duplicate Teresa's loyalty and dedication," Reithel said. "I've known her since she applied for our apprenticeship. She graduated at the top of her class. She volunteered for every single event and fundraiser. She went to every single union meeting. She worked industrial and commercial and worked her way up to foreman and general foreman."

Baranowski wasn't the only inside journeyman wireman to win big with Union Plus.

Tyson, a 20-year member of Local 654, saw an email promoting the contest. He figured: "What the heck. It doesn't hurt to enter."

He got one of the biggest surprises of his life when he drove up to his home in Pottstown, Pa., one day in late August and was greeted by a Union Plus film crew with a giant check for $40,000.

"It wasn't my birthday, and I see all these party favors," he said. "Then this lady started walking toward me."

The moment was shown during a Union Plus webcast on Labor Day. Just a few seconds after learning he had won the award and giving the presenter a hug, Tyson turned his back to the camera and showed off his Local 654 shirt.

"I want to represent," he said.

Tyson said Union Plus officials told his wife, Bonni, that they would be coming by the home because he had won $5,000. She did her part by keeping it a secret — then got a stunner herself when she saw that her husband won the grand prize.

"We were both very, very surprised," he said. "The people doing [the check presentation], the people from Union Plus, they were great. I felt they were genuinely happy for me. Just a great experience."

Tyson and his wife have two daughters. They used part of the money to pay off debts, including those left over from the wedding of one of the daughters last summer. They also used it to pay for a cruise they took the following week and for an Alaskan cruise they are taking next April.

"My wife is a cancer survivor," he said. "We know the deal. Nothing is guaranteed. If there is something we want to do, we do it."

It's another chapter in a satisfying IBEW career for Tyson. After high school, he attended community college and worked nonunion when his girlfriend at the time directed him to someone looking to hire an electrician.

That person told him about the IBEW and put him in touch with an organizer. He got into the Local 654 apprenticeship and saw the benefits of union membership.

"Best thing I ever did," he said.

Washington, D.C., Local 26 member Dylan Kelliher and St. Louis Local 1455 retiree Jeanne Johnson won $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, in the same contest.

Union Plus is a nonprofit organization that offers a variety of programs to U.S. and Canadian union members. Those include car loans, mortgages, discounts for vacations and cellphone plans, and a no-fee credit card with a cash-back option. It also offers legal services to members at a discounted rate. Visit unionplus.org for more information.

After working all day, many IBEW members look forward to going home, having dinner and relaxing. But not Laporte, Ind., Local 531 member Jonathon Appelman.

"I might work 12 hours a day and still go to the gym after," said the journeyman inside wireman, who has kept such a brutal schedule for his side gig as a professional mixed martial arts fighter.

The "mixed" refers to the range of self-defense and combat techniques that the sport draws from, such as boxing, wrestling, judo and karate.

Appelman credits his friend and fellow MMA fighter Henry Huff for sparking his interest in the sport. "I was like, if this guy can do it, I can, too," Appelman said.

The challenge was that the experienced Huff had made MMA look easy, while Appelman was coming into the sport with zero fighting experience.

In high school, Appelman had learned welding, but after his brother-in-law helped him get an electrical job, Appelman found his way toward an apprenticeship with Local 531 and, eventually, a solid union career.

Once he was in the apprenticeship a couple of years later, Appelman would work during the day and take evening classes — and then still go to a gym for MMA training and conditioning afterward. But because he was getting into the sport in his 20s — much later than most MMA fighters do — it took almost two years for Appelman to get to where he felt ready to compete, he said, and to lose enough body fat to reach his goal of 135 pounds to fight in the bantamweight class.

"For the first few months, [Huff and I would] go to the gym every night after I would get off work," Appelman told Northwest Indiana Business Magazine. "He told me that if I wanted to do this, I had to have the determination to want to do it. And I had to do something every single day, no matter how tired I was from work."

Appelman topped out of the apprenticeship in 2015 and had his first MMA fight as a bantamweight amateur that December. His hard work and commitment paid off: He won that bout in the second round, using a judo and jiu-jitsu choke maneuver that can render an opponent unconscious within 10 seconds.

Over the next six years, Appelman's day job as an IBEW wireman would put him on a variety of projects at places like schools and hospitals. In his free time, he continued to train and occasionally to fight, racking up an impressive record of seven wins — including two competition titles — and just three losses.

Since he turned professional last year, Appelman has fought in three more MMA bouts, winning two of them, including his last fight March 18. In that match, he claimed victory in just over a minute after employing a "Von Flue choke," driving his opponent's shoulder into the floor of the caged ring while putting pressure on a carotid artery.

The wireman remains grateful to have the kind of union job that allows him to pursue his interest. "I wouldn't be able to be where I'm at if it wasn't for the help of all the people that were my journeymen when I was an apprentice," he said in the magazine article.

One of those journeymen was Jim Clarida, who is now Local 531's business manager. "Jonathon is a great worker. What a success story," said Clarida, who, along with several others from the 450-member local, has been spotted proudly cheering on Appelman from ringside.

These days, Appelman is a traveler, working as a general foreman with Cupertino Electric on a solar farm job outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "This job has really let me learn a lot and broaden my experience," he said.

As this article was being prepared, Appelman wasn't sure when his next fight would take place.

"My days are full and I'm still trying to work out, but it's been hard to find a gym," he said. "I can still work on my grip strength and do some flexibility drills."

Appelman said he feels healthy, but he admits that he's picked up a few knee injuries along the way. "Nothing I can't get fixed," he said. "I'm going to take it as far as I can and as far as my body will let me."