Thirty-six years can turn a job into a career, customers into familiar faces and a small-town lumberyard into a place that becomes part of your life.
For Kenneth Van Diggelen, Rental Manager at Spahn & Rose’s Dunn Lumber in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, those years have included a move from the tool department to building a rental business, decades of serving local builders and more than a few unusual days on the job. Through it all, one thing has mattered enough that when Kenneth is asked what makes him proudest about his career, his answer is wonderfully simple: “Saying that I work at Dunn Lumber!”
Kenneth arrived at Dunn Lumber after being self-employed selling Snap-on Tools. At the time, he remembers Dunn Lumber as a small retail hardware store and lumberyard serving the community’s builders and residents.
His first impression has stuck with him.
“Everyone was helpful and welcoming,” he says. “It’s been so long ago I can’t remember a lot.”
He spent his first three years as head of the tool department before taking on a considerably different assignment: starting a rental business for Dunn Lumber. He has managed that operation ever since.
Over the decades, equipment, products and the business itself have evolved, but Kenneth says the people walking through the doors remain familiar. Dunn Lumber still serves many of the same types of customers he met early in his career.
“The customer type has basically stayed the same—small-town builders,” he says.
Those customers have given Kenneth plenty of reasons to enjoy coming to work. Asked to single out one relationship from more than three decades behind the counter, he can’t do it.
When the Rental Business Gets Personal
Managing rentals can mean helping a contractor get the equipment needed for a job. It can also mean helping a bride get through one of the most important—and occasionally most stressful—days of her life.
Dunn Lumber’s party rental business has put Kenneth in the middle of plenty of weddings over the years. Each brings its own challenges, and he approaches them knowing how much is riding on getting the details right.
“Bride stories are all different, but some are more trying than others, and you try to do the best you can on the special day,” he says.
One wedding about 15 years ago put that philosophy to the test.
A storm rolled in about two hours before the event and leveled a tent Dunn Lumber had installed, bringing it down on the tables and chairs beneath it. The tent was ripped beyond use.
Kenneth and the Dunn Lumber team headed back to the site. With the clock ticking toward the wedding, they installed another tent and put the event space back together.
They finished with about 30 minutes to spare.
The result, Kenneth recalls, was turning “one upset bride into a very happy one.”
Exceptional Customer Service By Treating People Right
That story also illustrates the advice Kenneth offers employees beginning careers of their own.
“Treat everyone how you would like to be treated,” he says.
For Kenneth, that approach has carried through changes at Dunn Lumber, including becoming part of Spahn & Rose. What he appreciates is the continuity. He credits both the Dunn family and Spahn & Rose with maintaining the character of the business that welcomed him more than 36 years ago.
A career that began after selling Snap-on Tools has now encompassed three years leading the tool department and more than three decades managing the rental operation he helped start.
After all that time, Kenneth’s pride still comes back to the name on the business.
And after 36 years of serving builders, helping customers and occasionally rescuing a wedding with minutes to spare, he has earned the right to say it with pride.
Thank You for the Years of Service
35 Years – Jeff Fuller, Independence, IA
29 Years – Scott Fleagle, DeWitt, IA
29 Years – Jeff Fifer, Newton, IA
24 Years – David Donner, S&R Mfg – Jacksonville, AR
22 Years – Jody Hesselman, Dubuque, IA
21 Years – Randy Bolam, Prairie Du Chien, WI
17 Years – Stephen Arrowsmith, Jacksonville, AR
13 Years – Noah Green, General Office
11 Years – Shena Lenz, Jacksonville, AR
10 Years – Justin Meyer, Decorah, IA
10 Years – Brett Zillmer, Lake Geneva, WI
10 Years – Mike Petsche, Dyersville, IA
10 Years – Paul Sukakkanont, Conyers, GA
10 Years – Tanner Bronkema, Stockton, IL
7 Years – Randall Merkel, Jesup, IA
5 Years – Sara Nevin, Lake Geneva, WI
5 Years – Caralyn Dunklau, Lake Geneva, WI
5 Years – Gerardo Delgado, Lake Geneva, WI
5 Years – Jeremiah Wade, Cabot, AR
5 Years – Nicholas Kurtz, Waverly, IA
5 Years – Kameron Pfaffle, Waverly, IA
4 Years – Karen Bjorseth, General Office
4 Years – Leah French, Greenbrier, AR
3 Years – Justin Cesarz, Lake Geneva, WI
2 Years – Andrew Lapp, Lake Geneva, WI
2 Years – Cole Finley, Jesup, IA
2 Years – Jesse Redding, Knoxville, IA
2 Years – Ambrocio Torrez, Marietta, GA
2 Years – Chris Cook, Jacksonville, AR
2 Years – Dustin Harding, Greenbrier, AR
2 Years – Dane Chancey, Conyers, GA
1 Year – Mason Robinette, Huntsville, AL
1 Year – Lucas Heller, Dubuque, IA
1 Year – Shay Bruce, Lake Geneva, WI
1 Year – Bud Burgoyne, Reinbeck, IA