Bryan Dugan, Harvey County United Way first vice chair
By Sheila G. Kelley, Development Coordinator
Question: Where did you grow up and what was your family life like?
Answer: I was born and raised around Topeka. I am the oldest with a younger sister. My parents divorced when I was 5 years old, and they both remarried in the coming years. I grew up saying I had the best of both worlds. My father moved into a 100-year-old farmhouse with about 10 acres and my mother stayed in the city. I grew up with my father on the farm and visited my mother it the city. When my mother remarried it was an instant blended family. I had a stepbrother who was 4 years older and a stepsister who was 2 months older than me. I went from the oldest child to a middle child. When my father remarried, they ended up having 2 more children; a half-sister who is 12 years younger and a half-brother who is 15 years younger.
Growing up in the farmhouse was an adventure. No central heating and air. The only water was well water and it tasted terrible due to all the minerals. So, I grew up chopping wood in the spring/summer to have wood for the winter. We had to haul water during the dry seasons for the home and also for drinking. There were always home projects being worked on that had me helping my father in the evenings and weekends. My father worked 42 years at Hill’s Science Diet in Topeka before retiring.
My mother was the first female police officer for the Topeka Police Department. She worked there 25 years before retiring. My sister and I would go to town and stay with her every other weekend and 1-2 nights during the week. Going and staying with my mother was viewed as a fun time but it also brought the dynamics of the blending family if the other half were visiting as well. As kids and teenagers, there was always sibling rivalry between my older stepbrother and sister.
I can fully understand and appreciate all the life’s joys, challenges, struggles, pain, and hardships that can come with being a child of divorce and those that have grown up in blended families.
Question: Who have been your strongest influences in life?
Answer: Most recently, it was Brent Edmisten, who was my manager at Excel these past four years. Brent was a man of bold faith that I had not seen active in the workplace before. Having never met Brent before, during my first interview with him over dinner, he prayed over our meal. I had not seen that in my 20 plus years in corporate life. Brent showed me that you can be active in your faith in and outside of work while being in a leadership position. Brent reminded me that people are our biggest asset in any organization. We need to do everything in our power to keep them safe and make every effort to train, develop and empower them to take ownership and pride in what they do each day. Brent helped me understand we are not perfect, we will make mistakes – it is how we learn from those mistakes, how we pick ourselves back up, that makes a difference. All people can change and make better choices each day if given the chance.
Earlier in my career, in my first plant manager role with Halliburton, I had an engineer who was way smarter than I, who had a PHD in Physics, and who had been working with Halliburton as long as I have been alive. So, as a new plant manager, having an engineer that was smarter and making more money than me was intimidating at first. Danny had worked with many good and bad managers over the years. Being new, Danny took me under his wing and helped me develop some of the leadership skills that I practice today. Almost every day there was a lesson to learn from Danny. How he worked through problems, focusing on the process not the people when mistakes were made. Danny was a great coach and mentor to those he worked with. Danny added value to each person he interacted with – he built people up, gave them confidence in themselves. This world we live in is hard, it can drag you down. I hope that with all the lives I touch each day, I am also able to lift their spirits to make the best of each day.
Question: What led you to your career?
Answer: The realization that both my parents were living paycheck to paycheck, I wanted more. The only way I could accomplish that would be to go to college and that I had to primarily pay my own way. In high school, I poured myself into being the best athlete I could be and ending up getting scholarship offers for football and basketball. Through college I played one year of basketball at Pratt Community College before switching and playing four years of football at Washburn University. I graduated with a BA in Business Administration. Proud moment – I was the first person to graduate from college on my father’s side of the family.
I have had a very diverse career progression. I started with Radio Shack – Store Manager in Topeka and moved with them to Phoenix, AZ. While in Phoenix, I switched careers and worked for AM/PM, a convenience store chain. I worked in three different stores before moving back to Topeka to begin a career with Frito-Lay Inc. Working for Frito-Lay 10 years is where I grew and developed my leadership skills which then moved me from Topeka to Lubbock, TX and onto Arlington, TX. While in Arlington, I switched from Frito-Lay to the oil and gas industry, Halliburton Energy, building explosive shape charges for perforating an oil well. Working with them for five years, I was promoted and relocated to Houston. After one year in Houston, I then switched companies to Parker Hannifin in Greensboro, NC. After being there a few years, they moved me to work in Red Oak, IA. After a few years, I had the opportunity to relocate to Wichita KS and work for Excel Industries and 4 years in it was bought by Stanley Black and Decker.
Through all these moves and career changes, what I enjoyed the most was taking a product from the raw state and transforming it into a finished product. I have learned over the years that it is not about the equipment or the technology, it is the people that make a difference. One of my philosophy’s is that if I take care of the people and focus on their growth and success, the rest will take care of itself.
Question: How would friends and acquaintances describe you?
Answer: I’m naturally an introvert. Takes a while to get to know me but once we’re friends, I’d go out of my way for anything they needed help with. Calm, cool and collected. It takes a lot to get me riled up. I have the same personality when I’m happy, sad, or mad (this can be good and bad). I like to think I’m funny, always trying to lighten the mood.
Question: With so many volunteer opportunities in the community, why did you choose to be involved with Harvey County United Way?
Answer: I have been a supporter of United Way when I began with Frito-Lay 20 years ago. Through a company campaign, I began to donate through payroll deductions. With my transfer from Topeka to Lubbock , I was still supporting United Way but had an opportunity to be part of the United Way’s Loaned Executive Program. This was a great opportunity for me to learn more about United Way and the organizations they supported. I then began running the campaign at my local Frito-Lay plant but also working with other companies in the community to be a resource for them to help them run a successful employee campaign as well. Even as I worked with my other companies across the country and Excel Industries, Inc., I had opportunities to see how United Way was working in the communicates to improve education, income and health. I have seen many of my employees lives that I have worked with over the years improve due to United Way programs. Because I have seen how much good United Way and their partner agencies impact their local communities, it is the reason I choose to support Harvey County’s United Way.
Question: What’s the one thing you want people to know about HCUW?
Answer: All money given to Harvey County United Way stays in our county to support children, families, individuals, and programs. I think this is very important for donors to understand. We only employ one full-time and one part-time employee, leaving most of the money to go towards projects.
I was involved with United Way for a lot of years as a donor, a Loaned Executive and company campaign coordinator. I joined the HCUW Board in January of 2020. I’m in my second year as the first vice chair.
Bryan has been married to Brenna for over 17 years and they have two teenage girls who will be in high school this coming fall, Emma, age 16 and Ava, age 14.
Thank you, Bryan, for your service to Harvey County and your unwavering support of Harvey County United Way.