Pride Neon looks toward next generation with focus on family transition planning Until a few years ago, the leaders of Pride Neon Sign Co. didn’t have titles to correspond to their jobs. As family, it didn’t exactly seem necessary. Dick Menke, whose uncle bought the business in 1947, naturally gravitated to the business operations and [...]
Multigenerational auto business focuses on transition planning When Black Hills-area drivers think Ford and Lincoln brands, the name McKie immediately comes to mind. The family-owned dealership McKie Ford Lincoln has served Rapid City and the surrounding area since 1979. There are two generations and three family members working in the business, which recently won the [...]
Building together: Muth, Lloyd share in family business success Doing business in the early 1980s wasn’t easy. Trying to grow a business was even harder. But those trying times bred a business relationship and friendship between Dick Muth, Craig Lloyd and their respective businesses and families that endures. “From ’80 to ’85, his business was [...]
Sioux Falls, South Dakota – December 7, 2017 Prairie Family Business Association, an outreach center of the Beacom School of Business at the University of South Dakota, presented the Boyd Hopkins, Sr. Excellence in Family Business Award and Legacy Tour in Sioux Falls on November 30 to the Sinclair Family of Montgomery’s Furniture. This award [...]
Montgomery’s approaches 130 years with eye toward sixth-generation leadership Alexandria was where the train line ended in Dakota Territory and a business began in 1888. The passenger, George H. Montgomery, had gotten on board in his native Wisconsin and gotten off when he could go no farther. A woodworker, he used his skills to start [...]
Rapid City Family Receives Regional Family Business Award October 9, 2017 - Rapid City, South Dakota The Patnoe Family of Liberty Superstores was presented the 2017 Coca-Cola Excellence in Family Business Award in Rapid City, South Dakota, on October 9. Liberty Superstores was founded in 1931 by Ernest Patnoe. Now with the third and fourth generations [...]
Fourth-generation auto dealership owners plan more growth Ernest Patnoe’s motto in the 1930s was “We smile when you come, you smile when you leave.” Three generations of the Patnoe family Almost nine decades later, the family-owners of Liberty Superstores are still smiling, with a business that recently doubled in size and a long-tenured group of [...]
Fourth-generation business leader emphasizes ‘planning to succeed’ Starting with lone founder Harry A. Thompson four generations ago, H.A. Thompson & Sons of Bismarck, N.D., has grown to 86 employees at five locations. The plumbing, heating, air conditioning and mechanical rehabilitation business was the recipient of this year’s Vicki Clarke Family Business of the Year Award [...]
2017 Heritage Award Recipient The Brockelsby Family (Left to right) Joe Maierhauser, CEO; Janet Jacobs; John Brockelsby; Jeff Oldham; Judee Oldham; Jeff Brockelsby The Brockelsby Family founded The Black Hills’ Reptile Gardens® in 1937 and today, the popular Midwest tourist attraction is still under ownership of the same family. Today, Reptile Gardens hosts more species of reptiles than any [...]
Earl Brockelsby was a born showman. At 19, he worked as a tour guide at a Black Hills attraction called Hidden City. The owner of that now-closed tourist destination claimed the unique geological formation was actually an ancient civilization. It wasn’t, but Brockelsby spun the narrative for the summer of 1935 anyway. Wearing a big [...]
