Dave Fink was 20 years old when he was interviewed by Claude Reinhard in the bowling alley in the back of the building, for a job with Carbon Cable (now Blue Ridge Communications.) He worked for the company about a year and a half when Reinhard asked him if he wanted to work for the Palmerton Telephone Company.

Now, after 46 years of continuous full-time employment, Fink retired from the Palmerton Telephone Company on Friday, Oct. 1.He rose through the ranks of the telephone company and retired as Vice President of Research & Development for the Palmerton Telephone Company. His duties included supervising switching, installation and maintenance of the telephone company's Central Office in Palmerton.Fink says that there have been many changes in telephone service throughout his career. When he started with the company, it was the only service that supplied all the wiring and the phones for the area. Now the company provides the service but all the physical part of the phones are up to the customer to provide, on their own, or can still be acquired through the company."That's probably the biggest change I've seen," says Fink.A luncheon was held in his honor at the Palmerton Telephone Company office where his family, Pencor Services, Inc. employees and co-workers joined him in wishing him a very happy retirement.Two cakes, both works of art, were made for the celebration. One was in the shape of an old fashioned magneto hand-cranked generator phone made by Candy Knappenberger. The other was a sheet cake with a telephone pole, wires and a ringer phone, made by Pam Gross.His co-workers chipped in together and presented him with a 7 1/4" Sliding Compound Miter Saw, which he will put to good use in his woodworking hobby.Donald Reinhard, Pencor's Chairman of the Board Emeritus, and representing Pencor's board of directors, wished Fink a heartfelt congratulations and expressed his and the board's wishes for a happy healthy retirement, thanking him for his many years of dedicated service to the company.Fink lives in Andreas with his wife, LaRue. They have five children and four grandchildren.