Obituary: Summit Electric Co-Founder Victor R. Jury, Sr. passes on
Summit Electric Supply co-founder and former president Victor R. Jury Sr. passed away May 29th in Fort Worth, Texas after a brief illness. He was 89. Jury Sr., who grew up in West Texas, had a successful career in the electrical distribution industry that spanned more than 45 years. After attending college at Notre Dame as a participant in the U.S. Navy V-12 officer development program during the Second World War, he later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University. He then went to work as a salesman for Westinghouse Electric Supply and was with the company for several years before joining Graybar Electric Co.
At Graybar, Jury Sr. held various sales and management positions and relocated several times over 28 years before retiring in 1976 as head of export for South and Central America and the Caribbean. But he often spoke about starting his own company, and in 1977 that dream was realized. Jury Sr. founded Summit Electric Supply in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his son Victor Jury Jr. and friend and former colleague David Meredith. They opened a 6,000 square-foot service center on August 15, 1977, with Jury Sr. as Summit’s president, Meredith as vice president and general manager, Jury Jr. as vice president, and two other associates.
In 1988, Jury Sr. relocated to Fort Worth, Texas to open a new service center and expand Summit’s operations in Texas. Two years later he retired from Summit and his son Victor Jury Jr. took over the position of president and CEO. Many of Jury Sr.’s management and personal philosophies are still in place at Summit today, and he leaves behind a legacy rich with his influence and thoughtful leadership. Known for his integrity and generosity, he spent much of his retirement volunteering and investing in numerous ministries at his church in North Richland Hills, Texas.
Jury Sr. is survived by his wife Bonnie, son Victor R. Jury Jr., daughter Jan Jury Efurd, two brothers, and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. Details
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.