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Tom Dwelle: Tom received an Engineering Degree from Denver University. He spent 25 years in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot flying everything from A-1 Skyraiders in Vietnam to F-15 Eagles. He retired as a Lt. Colonel in 1982 and joined NELLA. Tom served as General Manager from 1985-1997, when he turned over the reins to Rick Teske. Tom still maintains a strong flying interest and, with his sons, has raced many times at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada. The family fleet of WWII "warbirds" includes a Hawker Sea Fury and two North American AT-6 trainers.
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Steve Dwelle:
Steve received his B.S. Degree from San Francisco State College
in 1963, and spent the next 21 years in the U.S. Air Force
prior to joining the NELLA team. Steve's first career highlights
include 198 combat missions in Vietnam in the F-100, two years
as a solo pilot for the "Thunderbirds" jet aerobatic
team, two years in the US Senate as a liaison officer and
several years as commanding officer of a Russian type fighter
squadron in the Air Forces TOP GUN program called “Red
Flag”. Upon retiring in 1984 as a Colonel, Steve began
an active role in NELLA. In his spare time, Steve is an excellent
golfer.
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Walt Dwelle:
Graduating from U.C. Berkeley, Walt earned a degree in Business. After spending five years in the U.S. Navy as a Naval Flight Officer in Spain, he worked for Beacon Oil Company for 17 years as a Senior Vice-president of Marketing. Under his direction NELLA was formed in 1979 as a sister company to Beacon and he left Beacon to join NELLA in 1988. Walt, who is the managing General Partner of NELLA, has served on the board of CIOMA, is past president of Tiger MAC, an oil industry financing group and is also Chairman of the Valley Business Bank in Visalia.
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David Dwelle:
David attended Cal Poly (SLO) and immediately started a retail
stereo and speaker manufacturing business with his college
roommate. Sun Stereo grew to 13 stores and his "DWD"
speakers were sold throughout the world. In 1980, David sold
his interest to his partner and became General Manager of
NELLA until Tom took over the reins in 1985. David still maintains
an active interest in NELLA while pursuing several property
development projects in the Auburn area. David is passionately
interested in renewable energy and energy conservation for
a sustainable society. He has positioned NELLA as a leader
in the industry in applying Solar PV electricity to cover
a substantial portion of the convenience store load electric
loads.
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