A scanned grainy picture and a web page is not enough to thank the 2 men who gave you a job and ultimately a love for the egg industry but it is all I can do at this point. I can remember,like it was only yesterday, when Dr. Waldbaum took me into Dan Gardner's office and said "Dean  is going to join us. Talk with him about what you want him to do."  Dan took me into his office and took out a yellow lined pad and drew some lines and began "Look,you are Milt's son-in-law. You can do nothing if you want but if you want to carry your own weight around here,here is the number of bags of CLUCK (a dried poultry waste product that they had been unsuccessfully trying to sell for along time) you need to sell."  Dan didn't mince words. You learned to appreciate that from him pretty quickly. That was in early 1978 and from then on I was right in the middle of things. Basically to put it in year 2000 terms,it was like being given an opportunity to work on software with Bill Gates--these 2 guys were leaders in the egg field and welcomed me in their midst to learn. You had to watch the two of them together to get the flavor of how they worked. Dan was always "Let's get moving and get this thing done" and Doc was "Dan,that sounds good. What is it going to cost,what will it do for us, and what is the payback?"  Doc was practicing medicine in Omaha but drove up every Thursday. For the first year I too was living in Omaha so I got the opportunity to talk for the 2 hours up and the 2 hours back to Wakefield and it was a great opportunity.  I also got the opportunity to hear Doc and his wife,Mimi, talk about the business around the dinner table. I started spending alot of time up at Wakefield Nebraska,a town of about 1000 and got to spend alot of time with Dan and Jeanne Gardner,often having dinner at their house.  Doc and Dan's relationship was truly unique. They had worked together for nearly 30 years at that time and they loved doing what they were doing. One of the lessons I learned from them is that if you do what you like to do,usually money and success happen because you are concentrating on the job and not the 'money' and it works.  Also,pick your partners carefully and enjoy working together. They were extremely close with each other and  involved in each others lives in ways that even their own families didn't know about I imagine. One also has to recognize the involvement that Mimi Waldbaum and Jeanne Gardner had in the success of the business also---there were alot of years in the beginning when the business was pretty lean and it must have taken alot of hard work for the families to keep things afloat personally. Quickly these two guys got me involved in some things that most young inexperienced salesmen didn't get to do. But they made sure I got the experience of working with chicken manure,inedible egg sales, before I got into eggs and egg products themselves.  They also made sure that I made some mistakes...it is much better to make mistakes when you have mentors/teachers around you to help you pick up the pieces afterwards. I will never forget the time when Dan and I made a $1,000,000 mistake in an egg sale,by judging the future market wrong. I remember going in to Dan when it became apparent we had done so and asked him "What do we do?"  His response was a classic one. "Did you learn something from this?" I admitted that I did. He said "Good" and that was the last time it was discussed. I have never known another guy who would let you be involved in a mistake like that and not blame you partially....for him,the error was one he would have made by himself also and he just wanted to make sure I learned from it. One other thing that they did,which was much appreciated by those of us who worked with them is that they insisted we travel comfortably. We didn't stay in cheap hotels,we ate well when we were on the road, and we didn't do things in a cheap manner. If we were going to do it,we were going to plan to do it right. If travel was indicated,off you went,whether it was to Kansas City or Hong Kong....we were a very well traveled company. Both Doc and Dan,in my opinion, believed in the slogan"Think globally,act locally". Our company was very active in all of the organizations that supported our industry both in the US and abroad. As all students must learn,ultimately your teachers get ill or die or sell out, and you must be serious about the lessons they are teaching you. Not a day goes by today that I don't think of these two strong men and the lessons they taught me.  The lessons they taught were not just about business--they also taught lessons about your personal life and I am a better person for it. I sometimes think that the time will come when a statue should be put up in Wakefield with the two of them walking along together,as they did countless times,pointing at stuff and somehow capture the excitement and determination these two had about making the Waldbaum Company even more successful. For those of us who got to watch their walk,and participate with them,our lives and our families live's were enriched.  Both of these men were never one to stand on ceremonies (one of Doc's favorite lines) and didn't seek recognition of their achievements but for those of us who knew them we know what they did,and their gifts to the community even now continue to do for Nebraska. Thanks to Dan Gardner and Doc Waldbaum for being real men. Thanks for making alot of us eggmen and even better giving us an opportunity to make life long friends with alot of fine people in the egg business. The 'old guys' at Waldbaums when I began...Don Paulsen,Phil Rouse,Bob Penn were all part of the education experience and much help over the years. We 'new guys at the time' like Terry Baker,Dallas Roberts,Mike Loofe,Eileen Petit,Butch Utemark,Jerry Boatman,Dick Brownell,Tom Turney,Tim Bebee,  are now the old guys in the industry..ha ha Dean Hughson, eggman

TWO FINE EGGMEN

Dan Gardner,President and Dr. Milton G. Waldbaum,Chairman of the Milton G. Waldbaum Egg Company,Wakefield Nebraska

A scanned grainy picture and a web page is not enough to thank the 2 men who gave you a job and ultimately a love for the egg industry but it is all I can do at this point. I can remember,like it was only yesterday, when Dr. Waldbaum took me into Dan Gardner's office and said "Dean  is going to join us. Talk with him about what you want him to do."  Dan took me into his office and took out a yellow lined pad and drew some lines and began "Look,you are Milt's son-in-law. You can do nothing if you want but if you want to carry your own weight around here,here is the number of bags of CLUCK (a dried poultry waste product that they had been unsuccessfully trying to sell for along time) you need to sell."  Dan didn't mince words. You learned to appreciate that from him pretty quickly. That was in early 1978 and from then on I was right in the middle of things. Basically to put it in year 2000 terms,it was like being given an opportunity to work on software with Bill Gates--these 2 guys were leaders in the egg field and welcomed me in their midst to learn. You had to watch the two of them together to get the flavor of how they worked. Dan was always "Let's get moving and get this thing done" and Doc was "Dan,that sounds good. What is it going to cost,what will it do for us, and what is the payback?"  Doc was practicing medicine in Omaha but drove up every Thursday. For the first year I too was living in Omaha so I got the opportunity to talk for the 2 hours up and the 2 hours back to Wakefield and it was a great opportunity.  I also got the opportunity to hear Doc and his wife,Mimi, talk about the business around the dinner table. I started spending alot of time up at Wakefield Nebraska,a town of about 1000 and got to spend alot of time with Dan and Jeanne Gardner,often having dinner at their house.  Doc and Dan's relationship was truly unique. They had worked together for nearly 30 years at that time and they loved doing what they were doing. One of the lessons I learned from them is that if you do what you like to do,usually money and success happen because you are concentrating on the job and not the 'money' and it works.  Also,pick your partners carefully and enjoy working together. They were extremely close with each other and  involved in each others lives in ways that even their own families didn't know about I imagine. One also has to recognize the involvement that Mimi Waldbaum and Jeanne Gardner had in the success of the business also---there were alot of years in the beginning when the business was pretty lean and it must have taken alot of hard work for the families to keep things afloat personally. Quickly these two guys got me involved in some things that most young inexperienced salesmen didn't get to do. But they made sure I got the experience of working with chicken manure,inedible egg sales, before I got into eggs and egg products themselves.  They also made sure that I made some mistakes...it is much better to make mistakes when you have mentors/teachers around you to help you pick up the pieces afterwards. I will never forget the time when Dan and I made a $1,000,000 mistake in an egg sale,by judging the future market wrong. I remember going in to Dan when it became apparent we had done so and asked him "What do we do?"  His response was a classic one. "Did you learn something from this?" I admitted that I did. He said "Good" and that was the last time it was discussed. I have never known another guy who would let you be involved in a mistake like that and not blame you partially....for him,the error was one he would have made by himself also and he just wanted to make sure I learned from it. One other thing that they did,which was much appreciated by those of us who worked with them is that they insisted we travel comfortably. We didn't stay in cheap hotels,we ate well when we were on the road, and we didn't do things in a cheap manner. If we were going to do it,we were going to plan to do it right. If travel was indicated,off you went,whether it was to Kansas City or Hong Kong....we were a very well traveled company. Both Doc and Dan,in my opinion, believed in the slogan"Think globally,act locally". Our company was very active in all of the organizations that supported our industry both in the US and abroad. As all students must learn,ultimately your teachers get ill or die or sell out, and you must be serious about the lessons they are teaching you. Not a day goes by today that I don't think of these two strong men and the lessons they taught me.  The lessons they taught were not just about business--they also taught lessons about your personal life and I am a better person for it. I sometimes think that the time will come when a statue should be put up in Wakefield with the two of them walking along together,as they did countless times,pointing at stuff and somehow capture the excitement and determination these two had about making the Waldbaum Company even more successful. For those of us who got to watch their walk,and participate with them,our lives and our families live's were enriched.  Both of these men were never one to stand on ceremonies (one of Doc's favorite lines) and didn't seek recognition of their achievements but for those of us who knew them we know what they did,and their gifts to the community even now continue to do for Nebraska. Thanks to Dan Gardner and Doc Waldbaum for being real men. Thanks for making alot of us eggmen and even better giving us an opportunity to make life long friends with alot of fine people in the egg business. The 'old guys' at Waldbaums when I began...Don Paulsen,Phil Rouse,Bob Penn were all part of the education experience and much help over the years. We 'new guys at the time' like Terry Baker,Dallas Roberts,Mike Loofe,Eileen Petit,Butch Utemark,Jerry Boatman,Dick Brownell,Tom Turney,Tim Bebee,  are now the old guys in the industry..ha ha Dean Hughson, eggman