he was 60, and Alvin had suffered a heart attack six-and-a-half years before appointing Butch president. Te move put Butch in charge of day- to-day operations while Alvin set the vision, had ultimate authority, and served as a sounding board for his new young president. Te move turned out to have been a good
decision. Five months after Butch became president, Alvin died suddenly of a heart attack on May 29, 1976. Still 29, Butch became a third-generation president of the company. His father’s absence meant he no longer had the help of a caring and wise mentor, but he survived with the help of a committed staff. “It was tough, but I mean,
From that point, the company grew slowly
but steadily into other areas of Nebraska. It faced perhaps its biggest challenge in 1988, when it decided to end its 30-plus-year association with the Teamsters Union. Te Teamsters struck in July 1988. With the help of friends, family, non-union workers, and supportive managers and
both the Missouri and Kansas sides – about a decade ago and has a terminal on the Missouri side. It now also serves Wyoming, Iowa, and a small part of South Dakota. In 2008, the company purchased Eastern Plains Express out of Denver, which expanded its footprint into eastern Colorado. But it’s never left its niche, which is providing LTL service to rural areas and smaller towns. “He doesn’t jump at everything,”
L-R: Butch Brown, Dean Aden, CFO, and Trevor Aden, Director of Business Development
everything’s tough,” he said. “But as long as you’ve got good people and support, you’re in pretty good shape. ... Everybody did work hard, and everybody knew you had to work hard and get going, so that worked out pretty good, really. I’m sure there’s some people saying, ‘Well, gee, I don’t know if that guy’s going to make it or not,’ but what the heck. I got lucky and made it.”
interline partners, Brown Transfer was able to keep its business going until the strike was finally settled 18 months later and its new drivers voted to decertify. From there, the company moved into Denver
in the early 1990s and eventually bought a terminal there. It expanded into Kansas City –
Aden said of his brother-in-law’s leadership style. “We’ve got to investigate it and look at the good points and the bad points of it. ... Whatever we’re doing, we must be doing it right in order to stay in business
that long.” But being deliberate doesn’t mean
being indecisive. Asked about his style, Brown said, “I want to make a decision. Dad taught me that, too. You’ve got to make a decision, you know, and you’ve got to go with it. Now if you make a mistake, you can always back out of it and say, ‘OK, that didn’t work. Let’s go this way.’” As the company grew, Brown remained active
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14 NEBRASKA TRUCKER — ISSUE 1, 2015 —
www.nebtrucking.com
Kansas City 816.474.8040
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Sioux Falls 605.332.3352
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