Gale L. Wickersham

Business Hall of Fame Honoree: Gale L. Wickersham, Chairman & Founder, Wick’s Truck Trailers, Inc.

Gale Wickersham is in the business of building relationships – both employee and customer.

“If customers have a problem. they know my phone is on 24/7,” he says. “When I walk through the shop, I know the names of most of the mechanics and parts people. I know the names of practically everyone who works for me. I worked pretty hard at that.”

Because of those bonds, Wickersham and his team have established Wick’s Truck Trailers as a national force in the transportation industry and the largest trailer dealer for Wabash National in total volume.

“My father had trucks years ago. He hauled some of the first loads of beer that went to California by truck out of Golden, Colorado for Adolph Coors. That’s probably how I got into trucking and the trailer thing,” Wickersham says.

Wickersham – or “Wick” to those around him – grew up in and near Council Bluffs. Family turbulence during his senior year drove him from his parents’ farm to a friend’s basement. On the path to graduation, he had a reckoning about self-reliance.

“I got up one morning and I said, ‘You know what, when you get out of high school, if you’re going to make something of this, you better get your butt in gear because no one is going to do it for you.’”

After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1967, Wick went to Sioux Falls College and later Kearney State College. He earned money by driving for Yellow Freight at night. In 1971, he moved to Omaha and began dispatching for American Transport. The self-reliant young man would soon meet and marry his biggest champion – Judy.

“She would sit there and say, ‘You can do it, you can do it. Other people do it.’ She’s just always been there.”

Wick quit his job as a dispatcher, refinanced two cars and used that $2,500 to start his own truck brokerage business. His first office, at 72nd & L Street, was an unheated, unplumbed popcorn stand. After growing that first business and selling it off, Wick obtained a dealership for Dorsey Trailers.

“The first year when I had the dealership, I sold about 88 trailers. I thought that was a lot of trailers, but it really wasn’t. The next year, I sold about 200. From there on, it kept going up and up.”

Wick’s secured large fleet orders from Werner Enterprises, Heartland Express, Crete Carriers and Hill Brothers – orders so large the trailer manufacturer couldn’t handle the volume. That’s when he switched dealerships to Wabash National, a partnership as strong today as ever.

After building two offices and repair shops in Omaha, Wick expanded his facilities to Springfield, Missouri and South Sioux City, Nebraska. He’s since added truck dealerships in Omaha and Lincoln. His two children – Dawn and Steve – are directly involved in the business.

Generous with its time and success, the Wickersham family is especially proud of its role in creating the Gale Wickersham Athletic Complex in Council Bluffs.

“Those kids in Council Bluffs, they need something like that. That makes them proud,” he says.

At age 70, Wick says he thinks about retiring sometime, but he’s in no rush. He’s grateful to those who’ve helped him along the way: Judy and his high-powered mentors, including C.L. Werner and the late Duane Acklie and Russ Gerdin.

“I was around them all my life. You take a piece from each one of them. You put yourself together with that.”