History & Business Philosophy
In 1962 Gilbert Witzke started the business with the philosophy, "Do it right the first time." He located his first shop in the old Paine Garages, near Summit and Congress, and focused on electrical control and motor work.
"If it's still standing, we probably wired it."
The business, following a pattern that remains today, continuously changed with the times and began offering more and more electrical and related services over the years, always staying at the forefront of the industry in order to best serve our customers. From that simple beginning with a single electrician, we now have five master electricians, three journeyman electricians and two electrician trainees, plus a support team member.
In 1976 John Hazelberg joined Gilbert Witzke as a partner. Mr. Witzke retired in 1988, leaving John as the sole owner through 2001, when Tim Olk, Dan Cook, and Russ Kleinschmidt joined him as partners.
Training Future Generations
Witzke Electric's commitment to keeping up with industry change couldn't be more evident when looking at our historical commitment to training new electricians in our community.
John Hazelberg was on the founding Board of Directors of the Fox Valley Electrical Contractors Association, an organization that was instrumental in the creation of training classes at Fox Valley Technical College, which have now been attended by several hundred electricians from eastern Wisconsin, including many of the current Witzke team.