Phone tag: Local resident mixes business with pleasure in an unusual way

John Taylor might look like your average Coppell resident, but he's got something in his garage that some collectors would love to get their hands on -- and now, they can.

Taylor has a telephone museum in his home, boasting more than a thousand vintage, antique and novelty telephones. A retired GTE (now Verizon) employee, Taylor spent 33 years in the communications business. He is the lead man in one of the largest networking groups in North Texas, Netweavers, so communications isn't only his bread and butter, but also his hobby.

"I have been collecting phones for many years and also run a nationwide group of older telephone people that hold a reunion every other year in some part of the United States," he said. "I built the room for the museum in 2000 as a way of displaying them. I have held two reunions in this area in the last 10 years, and when the other telephone people saw what I was doing, they brought or sent me many phones, et cetera, for the museum."

The museum usually sees about 50 visitors every year and contains artifacts from as early as the 1890s, including telephones switchboards and mine phones.

Prior to working for GTE, Taylor served in the United States Air Force as a ground-to-air radio repairman. Upon leaving the Air Force in 1960, he got a job with Automatic Electric and started installing telephone offices for them.

"They were the manufacturing arm of GTE, and I spent the next nine years traveling the western half of the U.S. installing these offices," he said. "I was working in California in 1969 when I was asked to go to work for GTE California where I started a new group for them to analyze problems in their offices. This went so well that I was promoted three times that year, and ended up in charge of all installation forces for Northern California."

Taylor continued to work in the communications industry in California for many years before moving to Texas.

"I was promoted to head of engineering staff for them in 1964 and moved from San Jose to Santa Monica, California," Taylor said. "I worked in this position until 1987 when I returned to Texas as spokesman for the Standardization Management Group. I retired in 1993 and went to work for a nationwide company, Woltcom. I started as a manager, and was promoted to vice president the next year. The owner asked me to take over the company a year later and then he passed away. I ran it until 2001 and was able to grow it from [revenues of] $2.5 million a year to $21 million a year. His wife offered to buy me out in 2001, and I started JNT Communications that I still run today."

His last job for GTE was as a spokesman for a new department where he traveled throughout the United States and Canada making speeches on the value of department.

"This has enabled me to speak in front of large and small groups to get our message out," he said." Some of the people at the reunion are ones I worked with back in the 60's, but most I have meet by attending the reunions. I was asked to take over the group in 2008 and have run it since. All of our attendees are former or current installers. We have more than 100 members from all over the U.S."

The ability to speak to large crowds has proven essential to Taylor, as he has been on the board of directors for the Coppell Chamber of Commerce for more than three years. He has worked on the gala and golf committees for more than five years and is also involved with several other committees throughout the community.

"I joined the chamber first in the early 90's when I was head of a nationwide company that I ran out of Coppell," he said. "In 2001 I started JNT Communications, Inc., and rejoined the chamber as a smaller company that needed the support of local chambers. I joined several chambers at that time and it helped me grow my business."

Taylor's networking group boasts more than 40 companies a week during meetings aimed at helping small businesses flourish.

"Netweavers is a networking group that anyone can attend until we have a member that wants to be exclusive in that industry," he said. "To become a member you must attend seven meetings, bring seven guests and have seven one on one's. We have around eight attendees that travel more than 20 miles each week to attend, as they both enjoy the meetings or get a lot of business from it. We have more than 20 members and around 40 people usually attend weekly."

The city of Coppell tempted Taylor and his family because, at the time of his relocation, he needed a residence close to the airport. His wife, Jeannie, talked him into moving to Coppell and, Taylor said, the decision has been a good one.

"That was our original reason for locating here, as I was traveling on planes three weeks each month," he said. "We then learned it has great homes and schools and the people here try to help each other. It is laid out well and our city council and mayor do a good job of keeping it that way."

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