Editor’s Note: This continues a series of monthly articles celebrating pride in our town and its surroundings shown through the experience of residents, businesses, and organizations.
By: Jane Schuchardt
While Elgin’s Greg Tharnish knows wires, right now he’s mostly wired for writing.
Tharnish, who retired December 24, 2024 after 36-plus years with Great Plains Communications, headquartered in Blair, has three full-length novels to his credit. “Two are murder mysteries and one is a literary novel,” he said about the unpublished works. Other writing projects will fill his days as winter 2025 winds down.
“Sure is nice not to have to get out in the snow and cold for a service call,” Tharnish said as he headed for his grey pick-up truck. It was the white one with Great Plains Communications on the door that Elgin residents often saw around town.
Tharnish, a 1981 Pope John high school and 1986 Kearney State College (now University of Nebraska-Kearney) grad, started as a construction tech in 1988 burying cable underground. Now, more than three decades later, his focus was broadband tech working on Internet, TV, and phone service installation and trouble shooting.
..see more at this week’s Elgin Review.
