Nearly a decade since his tenure as ABC National Chair, what is David Chapin doing?

DAVID CHAPIN

PRESIDENT

WILLMAR ELECTRIC SERVICE

It’s been almost a decade since you were ABC’s National Chair (2016). What has life been like for you since then

I continued to serve ABC. It’s been fun to see other people get to take on the job and to continue to see the people that I work with both on staff and as volunteers throughout the years—and have all those people continue the promotion of our industry and the fight for the merit shop.

Willmar is a family business. How do you think that family influence compelled you to pursue a position on the ABC executive committee? Or do you feel like that’s just part of who the Chapins are?

ABC is part of who the Chapins are—we see what ABC stands for and it matches up so well with what our company and our family stand for. It’s our duty to get involved, to become active citizens. ABC will represent our industry regardless of if we were a member or if I was actively involved or not. So, I didn’t necessarily want to follow in my father’s footsteps so I could be like my dad, but because it was how he raised us.

You were in middle school when you started attending ABC’s Legislative Conference. Is that type of exposure something you would suggest to kids today?

Yeah, I would encourage anybody. I was interested in American history and government and the construction industry. My dad would take me along to meet people and to expose me to what was going on [in the industry]. We do that at Willmar Electric—we bring high school kids into our shop to show them this is what it’s like to be at an electrical contracting firm. Not necessarily to recruit them to come work for us, but to expose them to this industry, show them that this is a good industry and a good place to work.

Your liberal arts education is unique within the construction industry. How do you feel like that perspective helped prepare you for working in and then leading the broader construction industry?

I’m a big fan of a liberal arts education. A person should be able to look at things from a wide angle. I think people should figure out what their niche is. We always tell people at Willmar Electric that in 1920 our great-grandfather started the company to pursue his dreams, and we ought to be figuring out ways to allow other people to pursue their dreams.

How have your children grown up? How often does everyone get together?

There are five of us—my wife and I; a son in Lincoln, Nebraska; and two daughters in Minnesota. We all had dinner together last night.

Considering you grew up in Minnesota and have lived in Nebraska for 22 years, do you have a favorite activity particular to the Midwest?

We went up to Sugar Lake Lodge in Grand Rapids—at that time what would’ve been Sugar Hills—where my parents had a second home. We took the family up recently and rented out where my parents used to stay and my kids said, ‘Man, we should be doing this every summer.’ And yeah, we should.