When Daron Fincannon does his job right, thousands of people across Central Texas have power in their homes. But because Fincannon works at the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, there is no room for him to do his job wrong.
“I like that challenge,” he said. “I like to know that people depend on me to do it right the first time.”
When he graduated from Dublin High School in 1994, Fincannon started planning out his future. “I was about to get married, so I was looking for a job, and one of my friends worked at Rayloc,” he said.
His friend’s job sounded pretty good, so Fincannon put in his application to work on the assembly line at the Stephenville branch of the company, putting together auto parts for the nationwide company NAPA.
He stayed at that job for thirteen years, until Rayloc shut down in 2006.
Fincannon started looking for other jobs, and found an opening at Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant near Glen Rose as a pump and valve mechanic. Fincannon had no experience with nuclear power, but he knew how to work with his hands, so he applied and got the job.
Learning the ropes at the power plant was difficult. “That was a challenge, leaving the job I knew and taking on a job I wasn’t sure if I could do,” he said. “I had to hit the books and learn.”
The hardest part of the job, Fincannon said, is when the plant has to undergo a refueling outage. Every year and a half to two years, nuclear reactors must be shut down in order for workers to replace the old depleted fuel replaced with new fuel.
“It’s stressful,” Fincannon said. “Whenever we have refueling outages, we do a lot of work. We might work six 12-hour shifts in a week to refuel the plant and do maintenance on all the things that need it while we are shut down.”
Overall, though, Fincannon loves what he does. “I like the challenge,” he said. “I plan to keep doing what I’m doing until I retire.”
When he’s not working, Fincannon spends his time hunting, fishing, and boating. “I go to the Texas coast a lot to fish,” he said.
He also enjoys spending time with his family. After separating from his wife years ago, Fincannon remarried Amanda Court, who he met while working on a personnel-sharing assignment at a Michigan nuclear plant.
“That was a one-time deal that if I wasn’t divorced, I wouldn’t have gone,” Fincannon said. “But I didn’t have kids at home or anything, and it sounded fun. We have personnel sharing because we have qualifications to work on some of the stuff they work on at other plants, so it’s up to you if you want to go work somewhere else and make some money.”
Fincannon spent a month in Michigan, and met Amanda while she was working at her mother’s restaurant nearby. Amanda moved to Texas that same year and they were married in 2017.
Fincannon has three children from his first marriage. Colton, 24, lives in West Texas and works for Exxon. Logan, 22, is in the Air Force stationed in Missouri, and his daughter, Victoria, 19, is studying computer programming at Texas State Technical College.
Logan and his wife Rebecca have one son, Casey, who is four.
He also has two stepchildren, Jordan, 20, and Jaden, 17.
Fincannon now lives in Hico, and his parents, Danny and Karen Fincannon, recently moved to Hico. They are both retired, his father from a job at the county and his mother from a position at the hospital.
Fincannon’s family members -- especially his grandparents, who also lived in Dublin -- are his greatest source of inspiration. “I saw how hard my grandparents worked and how much they put family first,” he said.
Growing up in Dublin was a good experience for Fincannon. “Back then, kids could ride their bikes around, they could walk in town, and it wasn’t dangerous like some places,” he said. “You could meet a lot of people. You could hang out with your friends. It felt safe.”
Fincannon’s advice to Dublin graduates is to take nothing for granted. “It goes by in a flash,” he said. “When people tell you it is over before you know it, it’s true. You blink and you’re 45 years old. So grab life the horns and take good care of it.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other graduates, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.