Published: March 06, 2006 05:19 pm            

Dillinghams involved in numerous community activities

Dan Dillingham was posed with a simple request recently to gather his sons, Chad, Jed and Peter, for a quick interview and picture.

It took the businessman a few days to fulfill the request.

When all four walked into Dillingham Insurance building at 2402 W. Willow at twilight after another day of work, Dan Dillingham remarked, “I didn’t know how hard it would be to get everyone together.”

That’s an understatement.

With much the same intensity that this ancestral family had beginning in 1893, when Dillingham’s great grandfather, Tom Boyd, possessed making the Cherokee Strip run, the Dillingham’s have poured themselves into community service hand-in-hand along with establishing and maintaining Dillingham Insurance as one of the top agencies in the state.

Dan Dillingham, who was recently re-elected to a three-year term on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, served as a long-time trustee for Phillips University.

Contributing and working toward maintaining higher education has been much of his forte as Dan led other community leaders in developing a sales tax initiative in the 1980s that led to the city’s lease-purchase agreement with Phillips University to help ease some of the financial burden the college was under at the time.

An attribute of that agreement was the creation of more student scholarship programs.

When it became apparent years later that Phillips would not stay afloat, Dan worked with other leaders such as Bert Mackie and Harold Hamm to create the Enid Higher Education program and eventually land Northwest Oklahoma State University-Enid and Northern Oklahoma College Enid to fill the absence of higher education here.

It hasn’t all been education. Dan Dillingham also served as board president of St. Mary’s Hospital when it was owned and operated by Sisters of Mercy.

A pet project of his through the years was raising money to establish an endowment fund to maintain Dillingham Garden in Government Springs Park that was named after Dan Dillingham’s parents — Tom and Betty Dillingham.

“Community service started before my generation,” Dan Dillingham said, noting his father was active with Phillips University and the Enid YMCA during its relocation and building in the 1960s.

Chad Dillingham helped set the groundwork for the recent United Way campaign drives that have set records for money raised.

During the 2004 campaign, Dillingham helped expand the loaned executive committee to eight people, who helped raise a $680,350 campaign total.

He has served as board chairman for the Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce and worked with Enid YMCA director Ken Rapp a few years earlier to establish an endowment fund for the recently named Denny Price Family YMCA that totals approximately $1 million currently.

Jed Dillingham served as club president of the most recent Grand National Quail Hunt that had Gov. Brad Henry as a visitor.

His position with Grand National Quail Club has since elevated to chairman.

His community service varies from education — he was chairman of the Enid Higher Education Foundation in 1990 — to various civic organizations such as president of the Enid Rotary Club in 1999 and past president of the Enid Arts & Science Foundation that raises money for Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse.

He is currently a board member of the Enid Community Foundation and serves on the Autry Technology foundation board.

Peter Dillingham is an executive at Advance Food Co., helping coordinate many of the service projects that Enid’s largest and locally owned company undertakes each year.

He possesses an impressive list of community service positions that he does outside of Advance.

He is a member of the Integris Bass Baptist Health Center’s advisory board, a founding director of the Enid High School Alumni Association, a board member of the Enid Symphony Association and active participant with the annual March of Dimes campaign.

“It can be a challenge,” Chad Dillingham said about the extra hours required for community service. “You have to get accustomed to working late. Dad has instilled the responsibility in us. And the rewards are the fun and pride you get from doing it.”

Jed Dillingham said he’s grown accustomed to “meetings in the evening.” He wouldn’t have it any other way.

“All of us live here (Enid) because we want to live here. And we want to be involved with the community,” Jed Dillingham said.

He echoes another asset of what the family brings to the table in the quest to help Enid build, grow and remain a great place to live.

“When you have an idea, instead of talking about it, pick up the phone and do something about it,” Jed Dillingham said.