Bill Carlson’s career spanned nearly five decades as a wireless infrastructure trailblazer that provided tower construction, service and maintenance in the United States and abroad.
His career as a professional in the wireless industry began many years before the wireless communications revolution, as we know it today. It began during his Army service in the early 1960s. During this time he served four tours in Greenland as a Crew Chief, and NCOIC of a Class A “24 hour a day” Weather Station. This initiation into the meteorological data collection and communication trade set the stage for his subsequent success in the tower and wireless industries. His knowledge and experience in safe and rapid tower construction, AM and FM broadcasting, and microwave backhaul, propelled him to the front of the worldwide effort to build infrastructure for radio, TV, and telephone, and then into the developing cellular and mobile systems.
Starting in 1975, Bill owned and operated Tower Systems Inc., a worldwide communication tower construction company, covering a broad range of services from site acquisition to tower maintenance. The company worked on projects in over 29 countries on six continents.
In 1995, he demonstrated foresight and leadership in bringing together an initial group of 60 tower contractors to establish the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE), a non-profit association that provides uniform safety standards, improved communications, and a unified voice for the tower industry. NATE has become recognized as the leader in telecommunications construction procedures and practices.
Bill was also instrumental in establishing the NATE/OSHA Regional and National Partnerships which led to safety audits at thousands of towers, identification and abatement of hundreds of hazards, and the training of thousands of technicians.
In 2014, he was the initial recipient of the NATE Lifetime Service Award, which was named the Bill Carlson Lifetime Service Award in his honor. He was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2014 at the awards dinner in Las Vegas, with his daughter Kari Carlson presenting him with the award.
Bill Carlson passed away on March 25, 2019.