Fail presented lifetime achievement award

Joseph Fail

Joseph D. Fail, president of TEC, was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO) during the organization’s annual convention in Miami, Fla. Fail is president and majority stockholder of TEC. He is president and chairman of the board of the majority of TEC’s subsidiary companies, which include 12 telecommunications companies in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Fail graduated from LSU with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, and then started his career with the Bay Springs Telephone Company. He established the Joseph D. Fail Engineering Company, a telecommunications-consulting firm, and is a professionally licensed engineer in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

Fail is active in the independent telephone industry as well as the electrical engineering profession. He is a past president and board member of the Alabama-Mississippi Independent Telephone Association and is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, Mississippi Engineering Society and the Association of Communication Engineers.

Fail supports education and community efforts across Mississippi and is a board member at William Carey University in Hattiesburg. He also founded and still presents Jazz in the Grove, an annual outdoor jazz festival held in his hometown of Bay Springs. Fail is a life-long member and has served as chairman of the deacons of Bay Springs Baptist Church, and is a board member for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Guidestone Financial Resources. He is also a member of the Bay Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Bay Springs Rotary Club.