GTE Corporation history

In 1920, the three accountants formed Commonwealth Telephone Company as the parent of Richland Center Telephone.

In 1922, Clarence R. Brown took over as vice-president when Pratt left the company that year.

In 1926, the company bought Associated Telephone Company in Long Beach, California.

It also had a subsidiary, named the General Telephone and Electric Corporation, formed in 1930 with the Transamerica Corporation and British investors to compete against ITT.

By 1933, both Associated Telephone Utilities and its branch went out of business due to financial losses.

In 1935, General Telephone Corporation was established with John Winn as president.

In 1955, Theodore Gary & Company became a part of General Telephone and allowed the company to hold over 2 million telephone lines after the company merge.

In 1959, Sylvania Electric Products merged into General Telephone and was renamed to General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GT&E). Power also obtained the purchases of multiple companies. such as Lenkurt Electric Company, Inc and Peninsular Telephone Company.

In 1960, GT&E International Incorporated was created as a branch company.

Power was named C.E.O. and chairman in 1961, making way for Leslie H. Warner, formerly of Theodore Gary, to become president.

In 1971 GT&E undertook an identity change and became simply GTE, while Sylvania Electric Products became GTE Sylvania.

In 1974, GTE worked with American Telephone & Telegraph in a project to create satellite stations.

In 1979, GTE purchased Telenet to establish a presence in the growing packet switching data communications business.

In December 1983 Vanderslice stepped down as the company's president and chief operating officer.

In April 1992, James L. "Rocky" Johnson retired after 43 years at GTE, remaining on the GTE board of directors as chairman Emeritus.