Journaling the journey
New Indiana Statewide electric co-op president
looks forward to latest adventure

For the past 46 years, Bob Hippensteel has faithfully kept a diary. In all that time, he hasn’t missed a day of journaling details about his life.

But, when talking about December 1977, there’s no need for him to thumb through thousands of handwritten pages to conjur up a memory. His recollections are vivid:

The snowfall was unusually heavy early  that month. In fact, he recalled, snowbanks were so high that when he and his wife, Oris, traveled from their North Manchester home to Indianapolis’ Convention Center, he had to drive his red pick up truck on the wrong side of the road! The Hippensteels, both 35 at the time, were enroute that chilly day to their first Indiana Statewide Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives’ annual meeting. Earlier that year, the members of Wabash County REMC  had elected Bob to their co-op’s board of directors.

Neither Bob nor Oris had any clue what the Indiana Statewide annual meeting was all about. He had yet to fully understand Indiana Statewide’s role in the big picture of consumer-owners of electric cooperatives. That December, he discovered Indiana Statewide’s annual meeting gives co-op directors, managers and staff from around the state the opportunity to learn about important issues affecting the utility industry in general and electric cooperatives specifically. He learned about the association’s role in providing a multitude of services — in areas such as government affairs, employee training, and communcations — for its member systems.

From that first trip to the Indiana Statewide Annual Meeting, Bob got increasingly involved in leadership roles within the electric co-op industry. He served eight different times as Wabash County REMC board president and for 17 years starting in 1978 he represented his local REMC on the board of its power supply cooperative, Wabash Valley Power Association. He was elected to the Indiana Statewide board by his fellow Wabash County REMC directors in 1996.

And now, 30 years after that 1977 trip to Indianapolis, he’s reached the pinnacle of leadership for Indiana’s electric cooperatives. On Dec. 6, 2007, he was elected  Indiana Statewide’s 37th president. He previously served two years as the Indianapolis-based association’s vice president and another two years as its secretary-treasurer. “It’ll be a great privilege to serve as president,” Bob said. “It’s an honor to get to the top spot.”

The long-time corn and soybean farmer, who farms 500 acres scattered around his home, grew up on a farm four miles from the little northern Indiana town of Bippus. His parents were Wabash County REMC members and Bob remembered attending an REMC annual meeting as a child  in 1950. “They gave away 100 baby chickens as door prizes,” he said with a smile.

After graduating from high school in 1959, he attended Manchester College for two years. It was during college that Bob met Oris, whose maiden name, Hayward, put her right before Hippensteel alphabetically. “I sat beside her,” Bob said, and it wasn’t long before they started dating. He married her during her junior year of college. They’ve been married for 46 years.

In the early years of their marriage, the Hippensteels made their home across the street from Manchester College. They built their current residence on Wabash County REMC lines and moved in in 1965. The ranch style home, which overlooks a constantly flowing creek, is attractively decorated with an array of primitive style knick-knacks and many antiques. Oris and Bob enjoy going to auctions and are regular visitors to Shipshewana, a haven for antique lovers. “With antiques,” Bob admitted, “when I go after something, I don’t quit.”

That tenaciousness carries over in other aspects of Bob’s life. He’s a tireless worker who has had several careers throughout the years. While employed by Peabody Seating from 1960-67, he made seats for stadiums. Now, years after his job as foreman over the upholstery department, Bob still checks the workmanship of the seats wheneveer he goes to a theater.

When the seating company went out of business, he went into sales for Mormon Feed Company, a job he enjoyed for 20 years. All the while, he raised hogs and farmed. (After a bout with prostate cancer 12 years ago, Bob got out of the hog business but he continues to grow corn and soybeans.) For 14 years, while engaged in other pursuits, he worked two months out the year at the R.R. Donnelly plant, training the printing company’s employees.

Oris, meanwhile, taught biology, geography and history and physical education for 40 years at the elementary and high school levels. She retired just last year.

Another venture for the family was the wildly popular Summer House, a store housed in a pre-Civil War building selling herbs, crafts, and hand carved primitive art. During its 20 years of operation, from 1985-2005, the Summer House became well-known throughout the country.

Cookbook author and public television cooking show star Marcia Adams of Fort Wayne featured the shop and the Hippensteel clan in her “Christmas in the Heartland” cookbook back in 1992 and she interviewed Oris on one of her TV programs. Because of the Summer House, the Hippensteels were featured in public television’s “Across Indiana” program and in the August 1992 issue of “Country Home” magazine.  

Throughout the years, Bob has been active in the community. For 20 years while his four boys — Aaron, Kerry, Seth and Scott — were young, he was active in the 4-H program. He coached Little League for 15 years, serving three different times as commissioner. The teams he coached posted undefeated seasons three times. He coached basketball at Seth’s elementary school.

A former member of the Laketon Lions Club, Bob remains a member of the Manchester Masonic Lodge. He has been a Mason for 45 years.

For 80 days out of the year, he and Oris retreat to their vacation home in St. Ignace, Mich., near Mackinac Island. Oris grew up in St. Ignace so she especially enjoys their time there. Bob designed and built the house, a popular gathering place for their sons and their families.

As he begins his new position in the electric co-op industry, Bob said, “My job will be to be a good listener and to be informed. Indiana Statewide is going in the right direction. I think it’s important to let employees do their jobs.”

Things have gone well for the likeable and down-to-earth leader whose first trip to the Indiana Statewide annual meeting has led down a long road of service for all Indiana electric cooperative members. — by Emily Schilling, Electric Consumer editor