I am just one of many people who had the privilege of calling Richard “Dickie” Vail my friend. Working with him over the years as a recruiter at TheJobLine.com, while he was at Trussway and then at Panel Truss, I was always impressed with his exceptionally detailed questioning about each candidate. That helped me better understand how employers view the recruiter’s role, and I appreciated his honesty when rejecting a candidate, and his willingness to provide feedback. Although he was one of the hardest clients to work with that I ever had, I am a better recruiter and person for having known Dickie. He demonstrated exceptional leadership in all aspects of his life.
So, it was no surprise to me that, when I asked other friends if they would like to contribute to this tribute, the only hesitation I heard was if they could spare the time from work and/or if their words would do him justice.
In addition to these reflections, Dickie’s daughter Melissa has supplied a link to his memorial service on Facebook, which also is accessible on YouTube via the QR code on the photo [see PDF or View in Full Issue]. She provided Dickie’s favorite quote too.
Attitude
By Charles Swindoll
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say, or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes”
In my 40+ years in this industry, I have met some gifted individuals. Some who knew so much about the business that I wanted to stay close and absorb. Some whose employees and friends trusted their leadership and guidance without question. I would try to figure out what attributes made them special so I could do my best to study and replicate…but often failed miserably. There were a few acquaintances whose kids thought they hung the moon and whose wife’s affection and praise was as if the honeymoon never ended. Then there were a special few who when I heard them pray I knew they were having a conversation with a friend, and they were who I knew I could pattern my life after. But, there also has been that single individual who had all of these qualities…rolled into one personality…what a rare gem. I knew one of those individuals and counted his friendship as one of life’s greatest blessings. That was Dickie Vail.
Jim Thomas
A-1 Roof Trusses, Fort Pierce, FL
Although I’d only known Dickie since 2014, I had grown to love him as a brother. He helped us turn around our southeast plant, and then we went on to open two more. He was a man of faith, expected more of himself than his people, and was an example of excellence in his leadership. He will be missed.
Donnie Powers
Panel Truss, Henderson, TX
Dickie was just one of those rare individuals who lived every single day what he believed in his heart about his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There was never a situation that I was involved in with him that he did not demonstrate his faith in his actions.
He will be missed by all who knew him.
Don Groom
TrussWorks LLC, Caldwell, TX
Having both been in this industry a long time, I knew Dickie for many years and visited with him at the BCMC and other events. Over the last 3 years though, I also had the pleasure of working with him. Solid Rock Truss Design had the blessing of working for Dickie and Panel Truss mostly in the eastern division. Dickie was one of my favorite people to work with. He was always fair and honest. You always knew that, whatever situation you had with him, he would handle everything with the highest level of integrity.
Dickie was one person in our industry who is definitely worth remembering because he had a positive impact on many people’s lives. I am a believer and one of my favorite parts of our conversations was our faith. I was blessed to have had the opportunity to work with Dickie! As a believer, I am also completely confident that Dickie Vail is in heaven with our Lord Jesus.
Doug Blackburn
Solid Rock Truss Design, Cassville, MO
Businesses are made up of people and I have had the chance to work with many great human beings. I worked with Richard “Dickie” Vail multiple times. That included at Panel Truss in Georgia and Texas, as well as at other various times during his career. He was a fantastic individual and one of the industry’s “Greats.” He was also kind and always eager to learn and then share that knowledge with his team. He will be missed.
Ben Hershey
4Ward Solutions Group, Stanwood, WA
I had the pleasure of working with/for Dickie for a few years and, trust me, that was quite the experience at times. We both concluded very quickly that the other was the most hardheaded person we had ever worked with. We argued constantly but always ended the argument with a great laugh, a handshake, and picking on each other as we went to Cracker Barrel or some family diner for dinner (or sometimes even a late breakfast). He always had a way to lighten the situation, no matter how serious, with one of his great one-liners, without losing the ability to get his point across.
I will bore you with one quick story that still makes me laugh to this day when I think about it.
Dickie came to visit my plant and wanted to talk about physical inventory management. So, we put on our hard hats and headed out to the sheds (this was in the AM). He quickly came to the opinion that all my lumber should be stored up on railroad ties for air circulation. I, being less hardheaded than he, used my “expert” selling skills to explain to Dickie that all my lumber was under roof and stacked on sloping slabs to run any possible water away from under the lumber, thus there was no need for railroad ties. Let’s just say he had a few points of his own that he shared with me and then said, “we need to get you some railroad ties, son!” Seeing that I did not convince him with that argument, I tried another approach explaining that the depth of the railroad ties would likely keep me from being able to stack the lumber 6-units high due to height restrictions thus less protected inventory. He was quiet after that, so I thought… yes! Subject closed. Later that afternoon, I couldn’t find Dickie and he was out at the lumber sheds measuring the height… and of course six units would still fit with the railroad ties! Dickie just smiled!
I saved my last argument for after the office had left, and we were standing in the front parking lot before leaving for the day. Safety!!! This had to work! I explained to Dickie that surely those rough-cut railroad ties would make the lumber stacked 6-units high very unstable and could be a safety risk. This didn’t fly too well as I quickly learned he had stacked inventory this way for a hundred years and no problems. Next, he pointed out that I was being hardheaded, and I quickly reminded him of the old “pot calling the kettle black” one-liner. Needless to say, before we finished our conversation, the night shift supervisor came outside because one of the employees told him I was getting ready to fight some guy in the parking lot!
To quickly summarize the ending, we shook hands, agreed to disagree, laughed, and went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. I was so proud of myself for winning the argument and standing my ground. The following week, one of my associates came to my office and stated we had a truck load of lumber sitting out front that was not in our system. I asked her to check the PO number to see if it belonged to one of the other plants, and she quickly replied that it just said Dickie on the PO line. Immediately I got up and went outside to find a tractor trailer load of railroad ties! To this day, I still trip over those stupid things in our yard all the time! As normal… Dickie won!!!!!!!
I hope you enjoyed that story, and I’m sure we all have dozens and dozens of them. Don’t ever be afraid to share them as Dickie always liked to put a smile on people’s faces and this is a way we can help carry on his legacy!
Darren Hedrick
Trussway Manufacturing, LLC, Fredericksburg, VA
My dad, Dickie Vail, was considered a successful man. Anything he did, he did it to the very best of his ability. But few people know what he had to go through to achieve his success. When I was around 8 or 9 years old, my dad partnered up with someone and they opened their own truss plant. The plant did very well for a while, but then it didn’t. Part of the problem was the market, but Dickie would tell you it was God getting his attention. My dad is a Christian, grew up in church, always took his family to church, and considered himself a good, honest man. And he was. But as he was trying to grow his truss company, that became more important to him than his relationship with God. He was focused on being successful, making money, building relationships with customers, and creating a business that he had started from scratch. As a kid, I was unaware of the problems that were going on with the business, but Dad shared his story with me many times as an adult. He would tell anyone that God had to humble him. All of a sudden, he couldn’t sell one truss. His business failed. He filed for bankruptcy and he lost everything. All he had left was his family and God. So he started working on his relationship with God. He decided to REALLY trust God instead of just saying he did. He concentrated on having integrity and honesty and always loving people…even the ones he didn’t want to love. Once he got his relationship right with God, everything started making sense. While trying to sell some of the equipment from his truss plant, he met Mr. Shoffner. Mr. Shoffner didn’t want to buy Dad’s equipment, but he did offer him a job as a salesman. From there, Dad continued to grow. He ended up improving a plant for Mr. Shoffner in Tennessee and then later he started a plant for Mr. Shoffner in Georgia. Once Shoffner Industries became Universal Forest Products, Dad continued to work for them, continuing to grow and building relationships. He later went to work for Trussway where he stayed until he met the Powers brothers in Texas. Dad decided to partner up with Panel Truss and open some truss plants in the east. He hired my husband Ty to oversee the plants and he hired me to oversee the offices. We started with our Oakwood, GA location. Once that one got going, we opened our Townville, SC location, and lastly we opened our Ringgold, GA location. Throughout it all, Dickie remained steadfast. He would not make any decision without praying about it. He would tell anyone who would listen to him about God. He would ask everyone he could if they were saved. And he would never take any credit for his success. He gave it all to God. He knew firsthand what happens when you get distracted by life and God, even unintentionally, becomes second in your life.
Looking back and knowing what we know now, God can be seen in every single situation. Ty has been working under Dad for years, but he really did a lot more for Dad this past year. Enough so that Ty has literally just picked up where Dad left off. I recently received my degree in accounting per Dad’s request so that I could be more involved in the financial aspect of the offices. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why I needed to do that, but Dad just felt it was right. Now I know why. By following in Dad’s footsteps and modeling his behavior, he has taught us and everyone around him how to properly run a business. We literally treat employees like family. We pray before every meeting. We put God first in everything we do. I am not saying we are perfect, but we have been lucky enough to have the best example of how to act. Integrity, honesty, and God’s grace is what we live by. Dickie Vail taught us that.
Melissa (Vail) Lowe
Panel Truss, Oakwood, GA,
Townville, SC, and Ringgold, GA