This West Texas, Panhandle family of lineworkers share what its like to follow legacy

When storms tear through the area and power goes out, three generations of one family are part of a network that does its best to keep the lights on across West Texas and the Panhandle.

Each generation of the Nixon family - Danny, Scott and Camden - works at different electric cooperatives, but they share a mission: keeping the power on and the public informed.

"We’re our best when the weather is the worst," Danny said. "That’s when we rise up and answer the call. We do what we can do, and if we can’t do it, we go find somebody who can."

Danny Nixon, 66, began his career in linework in 1977 with Lighthouse Electric Cooperative, which is based in Floydada and operates in 12 counties. Danny’s girlfriend in 1977, who is now his wife, told him about a job opening with Lighthouse.

“I said ‘they’re not going to be wanting me,’” said Danny, an operations manager at Lighthouse. “My best friend got in on the act, and he dared me to apply. So I applied, and turned out that the operation manager was a friend of mine. I got into the business, and that was almost 47 years ago.”

His son, Scott Nixon, 40, joined South Plains Electric Co-Op full-time in 2014. SPEC is based in Lubbock, and covers 6,600 square miles across 18 counties.

Scott started working with the co-op even earlier than his father, as a part-timer in high school and college. While in South Plains College’s line trade program, Danny helped connect him with South Plains Co-Op.

“He called over to South Plains to see if I could do like a summer help program there,” said Scott, who is a serviceman. “I was the first one to start a summertime program at (SPEC). I graduated with a degree in electrical power transmission technology, and then they hired me full-time when I graduated.”

Scott operates a service truck, which helps with outages, connecting and disconnecting power, and so on. Through his career, he’s worked with substations, construction, meters and maintenance.

“My day-to-day is to keep the lights on,” Scott said. "It’s neat to say that I have a dad that came up doing it, and I can also say now I have a son that’s doing it."

Scott’s son, Camden Nixon, 21, joined Lyntegar Electric Co-Op around 2021. Lyntegar is based in Tahoka and works in 11 counties. Camden started working right after graduating high school with SPEC, which helped him get his CDL before he was hired on the spot for Lyntegar.

“Our co-op is a little smaller than (Lighthouse and SPEC),” Camden said. “We have one service truck that does what (Scott) does, and then everybody’s doing underground, everybody does overhead. I don’t usually do the same thing two days in a row.”

Along with following his father's and grandfather's footsteps, Camden has another person who helped influence his career path.

"It’s a very neat thing to say that I have a dad and a grandad that both do it, and actually I have two grandads, one that’s already retired, but he did it for 30 plus years at Xcel Energy," Camden said.

Danny added how he felt proud about seeing his son and grandson becoming lineworkers.

"It takes a special person to get out there and do what we’ve done, and what these guys are still doing," Danny said. "I’m walking tall because I know I have impacted these two gentlemen, but what they don’t know is how much they’ve impacted me."

Though they work for different cooperatives, they have worked together and with other groups during major events, including tornadoes. Camden went with Lyntegar to help the Snyder area recover from a tornado.

“What (Camden) is describing is one of our sever cooperative principles, and that’s cooperation among co-ops,” Danny said. “So when we go help other co-ops, or they come help us, I think that is special.”

An experience Danny had relating to that principle involved an ice storm several years ago. Lighthouse’s region lost upwards of 2,000 poles and countless miles of wire.

“It was basically seven days a week for at least five weeks,” Danny said. “That happened before Halloween, and I think the first days our crews actually got off were at Thanksgiving.”

While there are challenges, the Nixons pointed out that it is not all “doom and gloom.” Their co-ops are present in their communities with support and SPEC gives safety presentations to schools.

“We support our schools and our little leagues, and we help our volunteer fire departments,” Danny said. “They need help, and we got the people and the equipment to help. We're a team.”

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: West Texas family of electric co-op lineworkers share their story