Today, on National Mom and Pop Business Day, we pause for a moment to honor the late Dick Webb and his wife, Kaye Lynne Webb, the ultimate in Mom and Pop business owners.
Watco operates today in 38 states and Western Australia, but it was founded like most small businesses: with an idea.
Bus Johnson, Kaye Lynne’s father, was a rail engineer in the early days of Pittsburg. Dick began repairing railcars and also studied business management at Pittsburg State University. He saw a niche in serving customers by rail, and he rolled up his shirt sleeves and built an effective business model to fill that niche.
He also understood, being from a small town, that putting Team members’ needs and Customers’ needs first was not only the right thing to do, it would pay off for the company as a whole.
The location was perfect: Right in the middle of the nation in Kansas, second only to Illinois in the number of railroad miles that crisscross the state.
In 1983, a handshake with the first Customer in DeRidder, Louisiana, sealed the deal on a contract that today is still in effect. Because she had the fulltime job of the family, Kaye Lynne was the one to sign the loan agreement with the bank.
In the early days, if anyone was working a weekend, Dick probably was, too — he didn’t expect anyone to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. He worked up until the time of his death on March 23, 2009, at the age of 70, primarily in rail-car repair, wanting to make up for lost time in the years leading up to a lung transplant in 2000.
“There was a saying here that he couldn’t work on carpet,” said the couple’s son, Rick. “He had to be out there where the Customers were, where the guys were. He died with his work boots on.”
At that time, Watco operated 3,900 miles of track, 20 short-line railroads, 22 switching locations, 14 mechanical shops and 18 mobile mechanical repair locations.
Today, Watco Transportation Services, LLC, is one of the largest short line railroad holding companies in the world, with 37 railroads, operates 5,000 miles of track, 33 switching locations, 80 terminals, and two major ports. Watco also is a 50/50 joint venture partner with the Greenbrier Companies, Inc., in GBW Railcar Services, LLC. GBW repairs, refurbishes freight cars at 34 locations across North America, including 14 tank car repair and maintenance facilities certified by the Association of American Railroads.
Rick, now chief executive officer, said his father never lost sight of his humble beginnings.
“Dad grew up in a single-parent home when times were tough,” Rick said. “He started from nothing.”
He also never lost sight of a tried-and-true mom-and-pop principle: focus and commitment to the Customer, said Ed McKechnie, executive vice president and chief commercial officer. That focus and commitment was illustrated by the hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls that poured in for days after news of Dick’s death spread.
Kaye Lynne still lives in Pittsburg and remains active in the community and the lives of her family, which includes Susie and Gary Lundy, Rick and Stacey Webb, and grandchildren — including Fallyne Deao and Bubba Lundy, both of whom are part of the Watco Team.
But they, like Dick, will be the first to agree that Watco’s success wasn’t entirely due to its founder. It is due to the Team, which now numbers more than 4,000.
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