Dick Cabela changed the business world and the panhandle

The city of Sidney would not be what it is today without the contributions of Dick Cabela, co-founder of Cabela's, who died at his home on Monday morning. The company has undoubtedly been a major contributor to Sidney's continued success.

Cabela's was founded in 1961 when Cabela bought $45 worth of fishing flies to sell in his father's furniture store in Chappell. Customers at the store had little interest in the flies, so Cabela decided to sell them by mail order. Cabela's wife, Mary Cabela helped with book keeping by typing customer names and addresses on recipe cards.

Once the Cabelas realized the demand for mail order fishing gear, the couple bought more stock to sell and created their first three page catalog to mail with each order.

Cabela's brother, Jim Cabela joined the company in 1963 when business began to grow. The company moved from a base at Dick and Mary Cabela's kitchen table to the basement of his father's furniture store in 1964. After moving through various Chappell buildings during the 1960s, the company relocated its headquarters to downtown Sidney in 1969.

The company has come a long way since its humble beginning. It is now the world's largest direct marketer of hunting, fishing and outdoor merchandise, according to its website. The company is currently valued at $3.6 billion and has 50 stores in the United States and Canada. It recently announced plans to open 23 more in the next two years.

Cabela stepped down as chairman of the board at the company in June 2013, when he became chairman emeritus. Jim Cabela replaced him as chairman.

Whether one works for Cabela's and loves the company or resents its giant presence in the community, the positive impact the company and its founders made on Sidney is undeniable.

"Our heartfelt sympathy to Mary and all of Dick Cabela's family," said city manager Gary Person. "No one perhaps in Sidney's 147 year history impacted the community more than this man. He built and lived the American dream through hard work and believing in his employees and his products."

The company's contributions to the community of Sidney are huge and multifaceted.

"Obviously, the presence of the corporate world headquarters buys us dividends as we market our community," Person said.

The competition to build the headquarters elsewhere was huge, he said.

The company's reputation for loyalty to its employees was confirmed by a 2000 issue of Fortune magazine, which named it one of the top 100 companies to work for.

"Dick always held us, his employees, in highest regard, believing we are all one big family," said Cabela's CEO Tommy Millner in a statement to employees on Monday. "He believed he and Mary were blessed with wonderful family, friends and employees and an extraordinary life for which he could not have hoped to dream."

Millner asked Cabela's stores nationwide to hold a moment of silence on Monday afternoon in memory of Dick Cabela and to lower flags to half staff for the next week.

Cabela's employees are a devoted lot. Workers waited in a lengthy line at last year's shareholders meeting to meet Dick and Mary Cabela.

A video that chronicled the lives of the Cabelas and the progress of the business from its beginnings to its current success received a standing ovation at the 2013 meeting. The tribute evoked strong emotion from the crowd of employees and a close up on the big screens showed that Dick and Mary Cabela were both teary-eyed as well.

"A passionate outdoorsman, innovative thinker and respected businessman, Dick leaves an indelible legacy in the outdoor industry," Millner said. "Our core values are a direct reflection of his beliefs."

In addition to contributions to the business world and the local economy, Dick Cabela, in partnership with his family supported local causes in Sidney as well. Most of the monetary contributions the founders and the company have made were done quietly.

"He found significant ways to do a lot of special things for this community," Person said.

The Cabelas have contributed to conservation efforts in the area as well as to the humanities.

Cabela's dedication to education is clear through his company's many donations to the local schools system. The company put $1 million toward the bond for the new High School and agreed to donate land for the proposed elementary school, as well as the preparation work for the land, a contribution which amounts to nearly $1 million. Over the years the company has also given financial backing to various reading, summer and after school programs at Sidney schools, in addition to making large contributions to the annual Cabela's holiday shootout.

"Sidney public schools greatly appreciates our partnership, so to speak, with Cabela's," said Sidney schools superintendent Jay Ehler. "They're always there to support us financially."

The company and its founders, including Dick Cabela, truly back Sidney schools and the Sidney schools system is thankful for that, Ehler added.

"He was a person that, with Jim and Mary, made an unbelievable difference not only in Sidney, but in all of Western Nebraska," he said.

Although the Cabelas have made many contributions to the area, the biggest asset the company brings to the community is an investment in Sidney itself, through job creation and a commitment to stay here.

"Sidney is synonymous with the name of Cabela's," Person said.

The city worked diligently to gain the trust of the company, so its loyalty to the community is something that those here should never take for granted, he added. It would be hard to say how the town would be different without Cabela's, Person said.

"I'm glad we didn't have to find that out," he said.

Dick Cabela reassured those present at the 2013 shareholders meeting when he stepped down as chairman of the board that even through the transition, the company would stick to its core values, morals and success.

"We're gonna keep going the way we have been," he said. "Things are gonna stay the same. They may get better. They're not gonna get worse."

The company's commitment to the community is obvious, with its recent rehabilitation of the former headquarters at 13th Ave. and Illinois street, a planned expansion of the corporate campus near Interstate 80 and a $300-$500 million dollar housing development to accommodate employees in the works for the next few years, the company is here to stay, largely due to the work of the man who started it all at his kitchen table.

"He was a giant among entrepreneurs and his legacy will live in Sidney for the rest of time," Person said. "We were truly blessed that he called Sidney home. In a day and age when loyalty is fleeting, he had that old fashioned loyalty factor when it came to our community as Cabela's continued to grow here throughout his lifetime, and we will be forever indebted."