The McCurdy Foundation is Poured
Braden McCurdy | August 5, 2019
1982, gasoline was $1.19, unemployment was 9.7% and the cost of a stamp was twenty cents. Michael Jackson released “Thriller” and the famous movies premiering were E.T., Tootsie, Gandhi and The Verdict. The car brand Toyota Camry was introduced and the DeLorean Motor Company Car factory went into default and receivership.
Lately, I have been a little hyper sensitive to the 1980’s. In recent months everywhere I turned there seemed to be something related to the 80’s. In fact, we just concluded an online auction of a 1981 DeLorean that didn’t run for just shy of $14,000. Of course, being born in 1980 I can’t help but reflect on this amazing decade. With this emergence of the 80’s throwback item I begin to reflect on the days of being a toddler and what that must have looked like for our parents who were activating an entrepreneurial vision of starting an auction business.
In Wichita, Kansas Lonny and Annette McCurdy, in their late 30’s, were contemplating a full-time auction business. Lonny was a banker by daytime dealing with lending interest rates in the high teens. Annette was a former Garvey Company secretary and both had a hunger to start their dream which triggered the inception of McCurdy Auction Service.
Both Lonny and Annette grew up in family businesses and the principles that guide McCurdy Auction today were instilled in them by the generation before. Lonny’s parents, Delbert “Doc” & Mary McCurdy owned and operated a Dodge, Chrysler & Plymouth new car dealership in Hutchinson, Kansas. Annette’s parents, Roland & Evelyne Gunn, owned and operated a music store in downtown Hutchinson. The business principles and foundation they lived by were instilled in them at childhood by the generation before. Sticking to the Golden Rule is as important to today’s generation as it was to our grandparent’s generation nearly 100 years ago.
Since 1982’s inception McCurdy has experienced bursts of new energy, talent and new plateaus within the business. Rick Brock joined several years after the inception and Lonny and Annette’s children growing up in the business gained greater responsibilities after concluding their college years in the early 2000’s. Today, the management team has expanded to include additional new-generation leaders that continues to re-energize and adapt our business to the expectations of today’s ever-changing consumer environment. Our current leadership team continues to drive growth of real estate selling at auction as a first-choice solution throughout our several state region.