West Plains, Missouri – Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative announced that Dan Singletary, CEO/General Manager, will retire from the cooperative effective January 2, 2026, after a remarkable 40-year career with the organization.
Singletary joined the cooperative in 1985 after graduation from School of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo. He started as a computer programmer and quickly moved up, becoming assistant manager in 1992. He was named manager of the cooperative in 1994, a position he held for the past 31 years.
“Dan has been a tremendous asset to Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative,” explained Board President Keith Tharp. “The cooperative was formed in 1939 and in those 86 years, Dan is only the fourth general manager, and is the longest serving one.”
Singletary has seen many changes during his time leading Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative. “When I started here as general manager, the internet was just being developed and becoming readily available,” he said. “Our members and the way we interact with them over time has changed and is continuing to change even more rapidly every day. We used to handle all communication by mail and now we have phones, email and even texts that we can communicate through.
“Technology changes have also moved our cooperative forward,” he added. “The way we can track and trace issues and outages now compared to when I started is something to be proud of,” he said. “And that will only continue to improve as systems are upgraded across the industry.”
Safety has always been a top priority to Singletary, not only for our own cooperative team members, but for all cooperatives in Missouri. He served on the board of the Missouri Electric Cooperatives Insurance Plan, or MECIP, an organization that promotes safe working conditions through training, safety audits and reviews of accidents and near misses.
Singletary, in his role with Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative, also had the opportunity to serve on the board of Sho-Me Electric Power Cooperative, Marshfield, a transmission cooperative that moves high-voltage electricity to Howell-Oregon and eight other electric cooperatives. He served on the board of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., Springfield, which generates electricity for electric co-ops in Missouri and parts of Iowa and Oklahoma.
