To mark the company’s 70th anniversary, it’s worth looking beyond the Van Diest family, to the impact the company has had on hundreds of employee/team members over the years.

We asked company leaders, including President Jake Van Diest and Vice President John Van Diest to estimate how many families have worked for the company over the years. It was an equation too complex to fathom. Over the decades, the jobs created here have factored into mortgages paid in full and kids sent to college. Add in the ancillary jobs from construction to retail created throughout the community, and it’s hard to imagine the full impact of wages paid and benefits received.

The impact this one company has had in Hamilton County and beyond is perhaps best seen in the people who have built careers here.

Van Diest Supply Company now employs some 520 team members in Hamilton County, and approximately 640 full- and part-time team members across all of its Midwest locations. Over the years, hundreds more families have grown their own families in Hamilton County because they found work that was rewarding at the company.

Now a Van Diest retiree, Gregg Olson was with the company for more than half of its 70-year history. But Webster City and Van Diest Supply Company were about the last place he ever intended to end up.

“No way,” Olson said. “I wanted to move to a bigger city.”

After graduating from Webster City High School in 1973, Olson headed off to the University of Northern Iowa and earned a degree in accounting in 1977. He was working at a Des Moines accounting firm and had been offered a position with the state of Iowa when a young woman told him about a job opening at Van Diest.

Her name was Cathy Scott, now his wife of more than 40 years, and the sweetest reason behind his taking a job as assistant controller at Van Diest in 1978. A farm girl from the Blairsburg area, his future wife wanted to raise a family close to her own family. It was a decision they both celebrate, as the couple’s three children grew up close to all of their grandparents, and so many more family and friends.

“I think our kids had a very ideal childhood,” Olson said. “They could go to the swimming pool, play in the baseball leagues, and run the neighborhood without any concerns.”

It was also the right place for his own career to grow. Over the years, Olson would be promoted to controller and then treasurer before retiring in 2023. His daily commute was only a few minutes, and the salary and benefits enabled the young couple to grow a family in their own home county.

“Webster City is big enough to have grocery stores, a great library, excellent medical care. Everything we need is close to home, and yet we’re still close enough to go to Des Moines or Minneapolis for a weekend.”

Mark Roden is another Webster City native who found a career at Van Diest Supply Co. For Roden, it was a second or third career. Also a 1973 graduate of Webster City High School, Roden and his wife, Bridget, first spent some 21 years in Virginia and then Minnesota during his service with the U.S. Navy.

After retiring from the Navy, the Rodens were ready to come back home and be closer to family as their own parents aged.

The couple’s children, who had been raised largely in Virginia, would finally get to know their cousins, grandparents, and even one set of great-grandparents, a little better.

“We came back in 2000 and I worked for Electrolux for nine years,” Roden said. “When Electrolux decided they were going to leave, I was sweating it because there were not a lot of jobs around here. I was thankful that Bob (Van Diest) and the family decided to hire me.”

Roden worked in production and formulation for about 13 years at Van Diest Supply Company before retiring in 2022. To him, it was more than just the daily work, but the fact that it was close to home and people with whom he enjoyed spending his workday.

“I could work five miles away every day and make a good wage and good benefits,” Roden said. “I reconnected with people that I knew before I went into the service and met some new friends. I have no regrets at all. Working at Van Diest was a very good move for me.”

Apparently, he is not alone in that view. Company statistics point to a work force that largely stays for the long haul.

“We’re family owned and we see Webster City as home,” Jake Van Diest said. “We have over 200 members who have been here 10 years or more. We want long-term team members and that shows in the workforce.”

It’s a workforce that hasn’t stopped growing since Mary Van Diest first joined her husband, Bob Van Diest, and started doing the books for this home-grown business that continues to grow yet today.