The Twin Lakes Area is mourning the loss of a man who was an integral part of expanding advanced technology on the local level. NATCO President Dr. Steven G. Sanders Sr. died Dec. 20 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the age of 87.
Shortly after Sanders’ family relocated from the Chicago area to the Ozarks in the early 1950s, they purchased the Flippin Telephone Company and incorporated it as Northern Arkansas Telephone Company (NATCO). Sanders worked as a teenager with his father, Ray, stringing copper lines and installing telephone equipment to residences and businesses in Marion County.
Sanders attended high school in Mountain Home before graduating in Springfield. He went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and received his undergraduate degree in physics in 1958. Sanders later did research at Princeton University in New Jersey and received a teaching fellowship at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. He would go on to earn a doctoral degree in physics from the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
After receiving his Ph.D., Sanders began serving as a professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. He returned to the Twin Lakes Area in 1976 and became NATCO’s president of operations following his father’s illness and subsequent death. In his new role, he installed one of the region’s first large-scale computer systems to manage records and billing and was one of the first retailers of personal computers as that technology emerged. In Sanders’ leadership, NATCO also transitioned from copper lines to fiber optic technology and partnered with local companies to provide cellular service to the area.
In addition, Sanders partnered with the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to bring data services, then subsequently internet service to area schools. NATCO was one of the first companies to offer internet service to customers in the state of Arkansas, managing its own web and email servers. It also served as the trial site in Arkansas for national Integrated Services Digital Network technology and was one of the first companies in the country to offer the service.
In 1993, Sanders established NATCO’s charitable arm, the South Shore Foundation, to further economic development, provide educational opportunities and promote environmental preservation through the implementation of advanced technology. He also served in a leadership capacity on many state, regional and national telecommunication industry boards. He was the president of the Arkansas Telecommunications Association and the Western Rural Telephone Association and also served on the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, where he championed the efforts of rural telecommunications companies.
Sanders received the Dolores Donnelly Award for “excellence in leadership” from the Western Rural Telephone Association for contributions to rural telephony and the concept of universal service. He worked with the Federal Communications Commission on implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and assisted on the development of the Arkansas Telecom Act of 1997.
After relocating to south Florida in 2001, Sanders continued to oversee NATCO’s corporate investments and financial strategy until his death.
A celebration of life for Steve Sanders will be Feb. 17 in Fort Lauderdale. For information on the services and location, send an email to sanders@southshore.com.
He is survived locally by his son, Steven G. Sanders Jr., and two grandchildren, Isabella and Ethan Sanders, all of Mountain Home and Sunrise, Fla.
Donations can be made to the South Shore Foundation
Arrangements are by Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens in Fort Lauderdale.
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