Owner of RK Bass Electric retires after 40 years while leaving a legacy for his children and grandchildren

March 27, 2025

By Michelle Rodriguez

The Belton Journal

Robert Kenneth Bass, owner of RK Bass Electric started his business with his wife Cheryl Bass in 1984 and retired this March. Their office is located at 1200 E. FM 2410 in Harker Heights.

“When we started, we found there was another company named Bass Electric in California. Now, we have 200 employees. At my retirement party we had people we worked with before, and insurance people. It was two Fridays ago. Me and my wife have three sons named Andy and Allen, they are twins, and Josh is the younger one,” said Bass.

The Basses started their business together so they could spend time with their kids.

“God blessed us. He gave us everything we have. We spend a lot of time now with our grandkids. We have 12; eight girls and four boys. They work here during the summer. They work in the office, in the back, Brayden our oldest grandson works in the field. He does SFA,” said Bass.

Bass has been working in Harker Heights for 49 years, but he was originally raised in Panama and now lives in Belton.

“We’ve been part of the Belton Journal. We’ve had the ad for 30 years. We’ve been in the building 30 years and decided to change it up. We are starting another 40 years ahead of us,” said Bass.

Bass has had people that have worked for them for 25 to 35 years.

“I’m building 2 new buildings next door. We are going to rent them out,” said Bass. “I’ve been in Belton my whole life. We get a lot of jobs in Belton. We get a lot of work from Belton High School, Lake Belton High School, Lake Belton Middle School, and 13 elementary schools.”

They work on projects between Belton, Jarrell, Georgetown, Liberty Hill, Killeen, Salado, and Temple. They have 3 estimators, including one of his sons.

“One of my favorite projects was the UMHB performance center,” said Bass.

Bass was the President /Owner, and the Director of Operations is Robert Torres. Since RK Bass retired now, his son Andy Bass is President/ Owner.

“I’ve enjoyed working with my dad. That’s why I continued to do it all these years,” said Andy Bass. “I went to Sam Houston State and studied Business. My wife is the director of children’s ministry at First Baptist in Belton and is on the Belton school board.”

Andy Bass participates in all the jobs. One of his favorite projects is Lake Belton High School, the electrical portion of it, when it was first built. They spent 2 years there and it took 25 to 75 guys to complete it.

“My wife did the financials. She worked for 30 years, then semiretired, then retired. She was good at what she did,” said RK Bass. “We are blessed we have lots of family close.”

“We will continue what we do here and extend my dad’s legacy. He loves what he does. He is retiring. One of our core values is passion. He has a passion for anything he does,” said Andy Bass.

“I started working for my Uncle Jimmy Bass in the 6th grade. I took electrical trades in high school because I wanted to become an electrician,” said RK Bass. “The struggle is the economy. We cannot predict it. The toughest part is not being able to predict. The best we can do is plan. The economy has tanked quite a few times. We are blessed with where we are and everything we have done together.”

At his retirement party, RK Bass gave a speech.

“I want to think everyone that has come to celebrate with me, and for the whole company and the relationships we have had in the past 40 years,” said Bass.

He thanked those that put his party together, he thanked his wife for helping him start and thanked his son for working with him. He spoke about the three things he feels are important.

“One, when you start a new job, first learn, then study and then put it into practice. Two, when we complete a project or a task on a project, we feel enthusiastic even if we don’t show it. Three, when we pass by a project, we feel good again, and give ourselves a, ‘that a boy,’” said Bass.