CIOMA is Very Sad to Announce the Passing of Richard "Dick" Dyke

Richard Dyke (12-25-1927 – 5-26-2018)

WSCO Petroleum Corp (08-01-1970 – 3^rdGeneration)

 

Loving husband, father, successful entrepreneur, risk taker, people developer, mentor, business owner. These adjectives describe a man bent on living out his dream of having one retail business establishment around which to build a career. Forty-eight year later, the Company Dick and Arlene Dyke founded is still doing all those things and more. Richard Dyke far exceeded what he dreamed could be possible from those initial business efforts.

Dick served on many of the regional and national boards within the petroleum industry. Dick was Chair of the Oregon Oil Jobbers Association in 1976 and again in 1988. Dick served on the Pacific Oil Conference Board and was chairman in 1982. Dick served on the Board of the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America in many capacities receiving their Distinguished Marketers Award in 2006.

Richard "Dick" Dyke is survived by Zeruiah Aloysia "Honey/Arlene" Dyke, his wife of 71 years, as well as their four children plus a quiver full of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

 

WSCO Petroleum, the little Portland, OR., petroleum Jobbership might have been a hamburger stand instead. Then again, it might have been a chain of hamburger stands!

 

When Richard and Arlene Dyke were at the cross roads of a consideration as to what they wanted to do for a career, it was a choice between a hamburger stand and a service station. The service station won out and Dick embarked upon a career working for Signal Oil and Gas Company that began on the nightshift but quickly moved up the ladder until Dick bought a chain of seventeen stations in 1970.

 

The first life cycle of the business focused on making those gas bars pay for themselves and serving the public what they wanted – low priced gasoline, smokes, driveway premiums, ice and milk. The first shortage of the early 70s rolled around, and Dick revamped the Company from a single source fuel supplier to multiple suppliers. This move was a matter of survival that meant not letting one supplier control his destiny. Dick knew it was important to respect major oil supply, to be fair and honest and to fulfill contractual obligations, but he long admonished, "keep a safe distance" and "you should never let your daughter marry one of them!"

 

That early 70s shortage, which almost sent Dick in search of that hamburger stand, gave rise to some pithy sayings that he hung in WSCO’s hallways over the years: "This Company will live forever!"  Through these words Dick told his employees that he was not about to turn tail and run. It also communicated his intention that the company would never be dependent on top management alone, and that there was a future at WSCO for everyone willing to accept responsibility, to stand up to the tasks at hand, and to grow and develop alongside him.

 

Dick promoted from within whenever possible but was never afraid to mix in outside talent when he felt it was needed. Dick loved to invest his time and effort in people, most often through insightful and probing questions, rather than orders or instructions. He considered his "team" to be WSCO’s most valuable asset, and he generously invested his time and attention in their maturation.

 

The second crisis in WSCO’s young life came in the early 80s when Arco dropped their credit card on the west coast and started retailing seven cents below Dick’s cost of product. Many of Dick’s peers ran under the umbrella of a major oil flag—but not Dick. First, he hung another sign on the wall: "There is no future in believing something can’t be done-- the future is in making it happen." Then, while the retail battles raged in the urban areas, Dick focused on the suburban and rural areas and built a chain of consignment outlets connected with convenience store operators who had no petroleum background or experience.

 

When he was not fully occupied with business makeovers, Dick pursued after other business ventures: Wholesale Tire and Wheel Distribution; Bay Ice Distribution Company; Wholesale Nursery Stock Distribution; Just a Kiss Pop; Auto Insurance Coverage; two separate Petroleum Distributor Partnerships; Fleet Transportation; Ownership of multiple apartment complexes; Fuelman Card Lock Franchisor; car wash operations at fourteen different sites, Convenience Stores and most recently three hotels. It may sound risky to be involved in so many entrepreneurial endeavors, but Dick’s theory on that is explained by another sign in the hall: "A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."  In his spare time, Dick took the time to sail around the world in a forty-four-foot sailboat with his friend Bub Norris.

 

Dick was a consistent proponent of celebrating mistakes long before the business books capitalized on the concept. With each new venture he encouraged his team to dive in deep and make the inevitable mistakes as quickly as possible, then adjust and accelerate.  He developed a culture that encourages experimentation, rewards those who recognize a need, visualize a solution, advocate for change and carry a challenging project across the finish line. 

 

The third business makeover at WSCO came into play driven by the margin erosion in today’s retail petroleum market and a long running price inversion between branded and unbranded product in the Northwest.  Historically, WSCO’s primary revenue stream had been gasoline, but the market changes challenged WSCO’s management team to search for new answers.  Starting behind the curve in the Convenience Store business, WSCO moved aggressively into the C-store world where today it generates one third of its retail revenues from the store sales. 

  

How do you teach your people to deal positively with change?  When you establish a culture where the only constant is change, you attract people who thrive on change. The secret then is to keep all those "change artists" in touch with the basics.  This theory too is covered by a hallway sign: "WSCO’s focus is on doing the common things uncommonly well," and by Dick’s never-ending stream of insightful, probing questions. 

 

Dick always knew he wasn’t just in the specialty real estate development business or just in the retail business; Dick understood he was and is in the people business. Great companies don’t necessarily require great leaders.  What great companies do require is a leader who structures a company in such a way that it can live beyond them. A Company is much more than just an individual – though that is where it begins. A Company is its history, its structure, its relationships, its reputation, but finally, a Company is its people. WSCO has had the luxury of great leadership, from the start down to the present; WSCO has had the leadership which has been in sync with purposed results that while we challenge our business to grow each year, we would operate in all regards to develop our people and see both these goals met.

 

That my friends is "lesson eleventy-two"!

 

Submitted by Glenn Zirkle

President

WSCO Petroleum Corp.