In 1988, Chris Wolfe looked to his local newspaper’s classifieds section for help finding employment, where he saw a listing for a heating oil service technician at Agway Energy Products. “I thought, ‘Wow, that seems like a good career. You get to be a person that fixes things, and without prior knowledge, because they’re willing to train you,’” says Wolfe. And the rest is history — industry history, that is — and Wolfe has a lot of it.
At Agway Energy Products, Wolfe moved from service technician’s helper to service technician and delivery driver, where he stayed for 16 years before getting into HVAC management with Suburban Propane.
Now, Wolfe manages the technical support team and technical training at Ray Murray Inc. In this role, Wolfe and his team provide ongoing support and training to the company’s customers for all of its products and services. It’s this passion for innovative training that has led Wolfe to his second position as Education & Training Committee chair for the Pennsylvania Propane Gas Association (PAPGA), where he presents members with the newest industry training methods and research, current events and safety issues.
According to his nomination from Shelby Bell, executive director of the PAPGA, “he understands the need to be innovative and think outside the box. He knows the power of education and recognizes that the industry is evolving, especially when it comes to training. He appreciates how different generations learn.”
Wolfe is also a part of the Propane Education & Research Council’s (PERC) Safety and Technical Training Working Group, and the National Propane Gas Association’s (NPGA) Technology, Standards and Safety Committee. Through his extensive involvement with propane associations, Wolfe serves as both a voice for Pennsylvania industry workers and a disseminator of knowledge to those same workers. “We are always looking at ways to innovate and make sure we are doing things in the safest ways,” Wolfe says. And innovation always pays off.
Because in-person training is still favored in Pennsylvania, Wolfe is currently spearheading “The Tablet Project,” which will provide each student with an iPad during in-person training classes, enabling them to immediately register on PERC’s Learning Center site so they have access to immediate results and have all their training documented in one place.
Wolfe is involved with developing online safety training programs at PERC, as well. “It’s exciting that students who live 100 miles away from a training site will be able to access it from their homes!” he says.
Wolfe’s safety passion? Unsurprisingly, training. “It’s important to me to seek out knowledge about propane and use that knowledge to better support the industry.”
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