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Bob Kabat at a bill signing, third from right.

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Anaheim, Calif., February 27 – The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) today bestowed the prestigious Clyde T. Ellis Award upon Bob Kabat, former director of NRECA’s Management Services Department.

The Ellis Award, which memorializes NRECA's first general manager (CEO), is conferred by the NRECA Board of Directors to honor an individual for contributions clearly above and beyond the routine call of duty in furthering the principles and progress of rural electrification and the development and utilization of national resources.

Bob Kabat is credited with creating a culture of continuing cooperative education within the electric cooperative industry. As director of Management Services Department for 40 years, Kabat put in place the management programs and consulting services that have enabled electric and telephone cooperatives to thrive in a changing utility environment.

Said NRECA President Jack Wolfe: “No single person has been more instrumental in the development of effective governance and management expertise within this cooperative sector. Literally thousands of locally elected directors have benefited from the ‘institutes’ that he established to provide training on the duties and responsibilities of board members.”  

Accepting the award on behalf of Kabat, who could not come to Anaheim on account of illness, Martin Lowery, Executive Vice President for External Affairs, relayed Kabat’s gratitude for the award. 

Hired by Clyde T. Ellis, Kabat recounted that “my intention was to stay at NRECA for only a few years and then to return to a larger rural electric co-op.  But now more than 50 years later, after retirement, I am still working with NRECA.”

Kabat’s work at NRECA has been informed and sustained by his belief that that the rural electric program is “one of the greatest developers of people and institutions in this country.”

Kabat developed the Management Internship Program, a six-week university-based training program on all aspect of electric cooperative management that graduates more than 60 students a year and is conducted at the business school of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Recognizing the essential role played by local attorneys as advisors to cooperative management and boards, he created an annual forum and established a periodical, Legal Reporting Service, to keep them apprised of emerging issues.

Kabat helped create NRECA’s International Program, through which more than 70 million people in 49 countries have benefited from assistance that brings electricity to rural areas through the electric cooperative model.

Now retired, Bob continues to provide consulting services and advice to the cooperative community.

Kabat received the award at NRECA’s annual meeting, where more than 10,000 representatives from cooperative electric utilities across the nation are gathering from February 24-27, at the Anaheim Convention Center.  During the meeting attendees will set NRECA’s legislative and organizational agenda for 2008.  In addition to considering and acting upon policy resolutions, delegates receive reports from NRECA officials, hear addresses by key public figures and business experts, and attend panel sessions on major issues affecting electric cooperatives and their consumer owners.

NRECA is the national service organization that represents the nation’s more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives, which provide service to 40 million people in 47 states.

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