Still in the Family Business A third-generation trucking executive, Butch Brown, keeps things rolling at Brown Transfer Co.


BY STEVE BRAWNER Contributing Writer


Butch Brown’s first job was with the trucking


company his family still owns today. He was in the sixth grade, and his father,


Alvin, the president of Brown Transfer Company, put him to work in the summertime helping deliver freight out of the back of a truck to merchants along Kearney’s Main Street. “He paid me 25 cents an hour, and I wasn’t worth 10,” Brown said. By then Brown had already been given the


nickname he would keep the rest of his life. His first name is actually Dwayne, but hardly anyone calls him that. It came about when he was about five years old and, then a redhead, came home with a “butch” haircut. “It’s kind of stuck with me,” he said. “All my friends call me ‘Butch,’ and businesspeople call me Butch, so I guess I just kept it.” Brown never knew his grandfather, who


died at a young age. John Brown founded the company in 1925. Back then, Brown Transfer delivered freight brought to Kearney by the Union Pacific Railroad. It charged 25 to 50 cents per delivery, according to the company’s website. Alvin later added routes between Kearney and Omaha hauling canned cream, food products and household goods. During the 1940s, the carrier transported goods to an Air Force installation near Kearney. Butch Brown continued to work for the


company during summers while in school, and then he worked afternoons while earning his business degree at what was then Kearney State College and is now the University of Nebraska


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at Kearney. As a college freshman, he made his first solo trip in a tractor-trailer to pick up a load from Baldwin Filters, still the company’s biggest client. He didn’t have a commercial driver’s license and wasn’t required back then to do so. After graduation, he began learning a variety of roles – collections, sales, operations. By the time he was about 23, he was an executive making sales calls in Omaha, where most of the freight as well as the carrier’s interline partners were located. Te youngest of three children and the only son, he knew where his future lay. “I kind of thought I would take over the reins unless something else happened,” he said. Brown had a good teacher – his dad. Alvin


Brown was a man of high standards and guiding principles, including service to the customer. As Brown recalls, “You had to get the freight there. I don’t care if the people wanted it on the roof, you put it on the roof.” “He was quite a guy,” he said. “He really was


respected by not only friends but also competitors. And he was fair but stern. You understood him and what he said. He taught me to be honest and fair and work hard, and I do put in a lot of hours, and did then.” Te carrier, which celebrates its 90th


birthday this year, hauls general commodities – agricultural implements, chemicals, raw materials, alcoholic beverages and other products. While it does own a few reefers, it doesn’t haul anything frozen. It has eight service center locations, 185 employees, 115 tractors, and 335 trailers. More than 99 percent of its shipments arrive claims-free, according to its website. Brown Transfer has several employees who


have contributed many years to the company, including Vice President of Sales Fred Sommer (40 years); Lonna Rasmussen, office manager (45 years); and Karen Shiers, administrative assistant (40 years). Jim Miller and Bob Kolls each have worked for the company more than 20 years. “Without this long-term support and loyalty, our company wouldn’t be what it is today,” Brown said. At its heart it’s a family-owned business.


Brown’s brother-in-law, Dean Aden, is the company’s chief financial officer and secretary- treasurer. Aden has worked for the company since 1965, starting as a part-time employee working on the dock while going to college. When he graduated, Alvin offered him a job as an accountant. “To me, he was my second father,” Aden said. “He taught me an awful lot about the industry and a lot about life. He was just an outstanding gentleman. He had all kinds of friends in the industry. A handshake was good enough for him. ... Butch is very similar to his father.” Family involvement in the business has always


been important and continues today. Gaylene Aden, Dean’s wife and Butch’s sister, worked for the company for 20 years. Trevor Aden, their son, is the fourth generation of the family to be in management. Mindy Aden Brummer and Marlene Hellman, Brown’s other sister, currently work at the office. Butch Brown became president at age 29


in December 1975, when his father became chairman of the board. Tere was a good reason to put Butch in a leadership position so soon. Te company’s founder, John Brown, had died before


Continues NEBRASKA TRUCKER — ISSUE 1, 2015 — www.nebtrucking.com


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