Fidelity Technical Operations Supervisor, Rich Witte Retires After 44 Years

Fidelity Technical Operations Supervisor, Rich Witte Retires After 44 Years

January 14, 2019 – Fidelity Communications is honored to celebrate the retirement and over 40 years of service and accomplishments with Rich Witte. Rich has been an important part of the company's growth and history; but more importantly, he has been a friend, teacher, and advocate of the entire Fidelity family. Rich's expertise and talents will be missed, but he has been a great trainer and leaves a skilled team to carry on.

After spending 44 years with Fidelity Communications, Rich is retiring as the Technical Operations Supervisor. He started his career working in the construction department for Fidelity Communications in 1974.  He has held many positions within the company and has extensive experience that will not be easy to replace. 

Rich has also seen many changes in his career at Fidelity. When he started as a technician, Fidelity offered phone service through a party line.  Party lines were shared phone lines between 4 and 8 homes that differentiated calls by the ringtone – single ring or double ring – letting the homeowners know for whom the call was intended. Today, not only does Rich train technicians to install and troubleshoot digital home phone service; he also helps maintains business phone service over an uninterrupted voice network and connects customers with internet and TV over several different platforms.

“There has been a lot of change since I started in the '70s,” says Rich, “and I feel we have only now started to see the biggest changes in communication and information delivery. I believe Fidelity Communications can meet these changes with innovative technologies that will provide a superior service for all our customers.  It has been an honor and a privilege to have worked with such dedicated employees here at Fidelity Communications for 44 years.” 

During Rich's tenure at Fidelity, he also worked as a technician then supervisor in the Central Office. His responsibilities within this department were to maintain and troubleshoot the internal operations for phone services. While in Central Office, Fidelity increased its services to include internet and TV. 

When Rich returned to the Installation & Repair department as the Technical Operations Supervisor, he was very familiar with all services offered. Therefore, he had the skills and expertise to train and oversee the technicians installing and troubleshooting customers. His knowledge will be missed as he hands over the reins to Curt Richards, his lead technician.

Rich and his wife currently live in Canaan where they plan to start a new project with honey bees. Last year, they started this new pastime with a few beehives in their apiary, which has now grown to 10 beehives. He is looking forward to continuing the journey and enjoying his time with his wife and family.