I, Tim McElligott, being of sound but balky mind and body do hereby announce my retirement from Telephony. I have had a great (for me, anyway) run but wish to spend more time with my family and to pursue other, less time-sensitive interests.

In leaving the world of trade journalism, I can reflect on a career filled with blah...blah...blah.

Sorry, I just had to say it once to see how it felt, to see how Dick Notebaert felt today and Ed Whitacre felt last month and Duane Ackerman felt earlier this spring. Alas, I will never know. Not because I don't plan to retire--although I doubt I will ever get that privilege because the odds of being fired or dying on the job are much higher--but because I will never retire in a fashion that draws attention--from anyone, least of all myself.

Jealous? Yes, but only a little. There is a big difference between limping to the finish with no tread left on your shoes nor gas in your tank and going out at 59 years of age at the top of your game wearing spiffy Salvatore Ferragamos and possessing the financial options to do whatever the frig you wanted. But we get what we put in. And that's that.

Gotta hand it to Notebaert. He took a chance. Although sometimes I see it as the same type of chance Michael Capellas took going to MCI/WorldCom. There was nowhere to go but up. Expectations were lower than those held for me by my very prescient seventh-grade teacher. Theirs were among the few cases in the world of high-powered executive management where failure was an option. Still, few others had the guts. And lo and behold, they succeeded.

Good CEOs tend to know when it’s time to get out, leaving just when it seems there is no more for them to accomplish and at a time when they can dust off their hands, collect their compensation and call it a job well done. Notebaert is a good CEO. Let us wish him well.

Now, how would that Qwest territory look in the hands of a couple of good Independent telcos?

E-mail me at tmcelligott@telephonyonline.com.