Dan Holland: Intelligent, Independent, Innovative & Inspired
Few had the privilege of knowing Dan Holland at a deep enough level to appreciate the entirety of his complexity, intellect, and passion. While he left us at a much younger age than expected, I will always be deeply grateful for our friendship, where Dan always exuded kindness, fairness, wisdom, genius, and grace.
Family
To know Dan’s family, and in particular his wife, Lisa, and sons, James and John, is assurance that the love of Scripture and family were the centerpiece of their lives. Lisa and Dan spent very special hours together within their farming avocation, planting crops, bailing hay, milking cows, skimming cream, making butter, and processing sorghum into syrup, to name a few of the many labors of love. Most recently, spending time with their grandchildren provided Dan and Lisa much joy. The video below provides a wonderful review of Dan’s life with his beloved family
In Loving Memory of Dan Holland (1/18/62 - 1/17/24) from Qualtim, Inc. on Vimeo.
At the other end of the spectrum of Dan’s life was his love of Clearspan Components, Inc., which originated with Lisa’s father, Jim McRae, a mechanical engineer. The original Clearspan Components and Clearspan Construction Company began in 1962. They were an offsite construction operation that manufactured “pre-fabricated trusses,” wall panels, millwork, and housing. Jim developed two patents for machinery used in the production process of their offsite components that are still in use today.
Shortly after his marriage to Lisa in October of 1986, Dan immersed himself in working with Jim to leverage his own mechanical engineering and business management skills. It’s clear that Jim and Dan were kindred spirits through synergistic expertise, keen insight, and the unique ability to turn ideas into actions that no one thought possible.
Clearspan Components & WTCA
Thirteen years later, Clearspan became known to the Wood Truss Council of America (WTCA) through WTCA’s 1999 President Richard Brown. Richard worked enthusiastically with Qualtim staff in the mid to late 90’s to grow WTCA from its July 1992 financially bankrupt condition and a mere 247 members.
The mid-South region was important to Richard, and that work put us in touch with Dan. Early on, it became clear that Dan was a man whose heart and passion was in complete alignment with Don Hershey and Rip Rogers, two dear friends and industry luminaries. Their point of view was simple -- it was in the component manufacturer’s (CM’s) best interest to have independent and exclusive control over industry decisions that affect a CM’s business. Their often-spoken vision for the CM industry, and what drove WTCA’s focus and passion through June 29, 2020, was “the tail should never wag the dog.”
On October 23, 1999, as the WTCA Mid South Chapter President, Dan became a member of the WTCA Board of Directors.
Given Dan’s business and engineering acumen, he was nominated to become WTCA’s secretary on May 25, 2001. Dan’s first meeting as WTCA President was at the Phoenix BCMC on October 11, 2003. A central theme of Dan’s presidency was the fundamental knowledge that WTCA members had CM businesses to run. If the association was to be successful, the roles and responsibilities of everyone had to be understood. To Dan, this meant that the role of the Board was to set policy and provide Qualtim staff with experienced CM counsel. The role of Qualtim staff was to use their engineering, management, testing and market development knowledge to facilitate the best interests of each CM member, smallest to largest. Mentoring of Qualtim staff, done well, would assure that membership growth would take care of itself. Dan’s final impact is best established by reviewing the 2004 WTCA Annual Report.
Through the passionate positive support of members such as Richard Brown, Roger Gibbs, Mary Pat Keller, Scott Arquilla, Rip Rogers, and Don Hershey, Dan’s leadership and teamwork with Qualtim staff accomplished the following “top ten” CM-centric deliverables:
- Through the passionate positive support of members such as Richard Brown, Roger Gibbs, Mary Pat Keller, Scott Arquilla, Rip Rogers, and Don Hershey, Dan’s leadership and teamwork with Qualtim staff accomplished the following “top ten” CM-centric deliverables:
“WTCA is the advocate for CMs.”
“TPI is the advocate for Truss Plate Suppliers.”
While never “stress or political challenge free,” Dan’s goal was to provide independent, knowledgeable advocacy exclusively on behalf of CMs. As an example, do TPI members manufacture trusses or have a duty to inform framers about truss installation? If not, then why did TPI create HIB-91 and QST-89 “Truss Quality” (i.e., TPI-85, Appendix P)? Both directly affected WTCA members, not TPI members.
Dan worked hard to place tasks with responsibility and WTCA gained professional standing, with WTCA's CM members, because of this common sense approach.
- The first Building Component Safety Information (BCSI 1-03) was born. Dan worked closely with Qualtim staff who wrote all 12 chapters inside of eight months.
- An OSHA alliance agreement with WTCA was made for OSHA to use BCSI as a key safety document. This was the precursor to working with framers on truss installation safety and the foundation for the July 2013 creation of the National Framer’s Council.
- Working with NCSEA members Stephanie Young, Ed Huston, and John Grenier, truss-friendly changes were adopted into the IBC and IRC model codes. Dan’s goal was to help clarify, simplify, and harmonize treatment of truss loading procedures, bracing, and the manner by which truss design was incorporated into the overall building design process.
- The “Guide to Good Practice for Applying Loads to Metal Plate Connected Wood Trusses” was created. Dan’s goal for this project was to ensure proper and harmonized ASCE 7 and IBC/IRC applied loading. This became a key industry resource and increased CM products’ value and market share. How? By providing trusses with a level playing field when compared with competing products such as “stick built” construction.
- The first digital publications marketplace was created. Dan’s chapter experience generated a WTCA Chapter publications purchase agreement that provided Chapters rebate revenue. In addition, this facilitated each member saving money when buying WTCA publications. Chapter members ordering together received quantity discount pricing based on the Chapter order total.
- A database program entitled “Lumber Trading Data” was initiated. Dan’s goal for this program was to more thoroughly understand the ebbs and flows of lumber costs in the context of the ever changing Softwood lumber Agreement and related issues said to cause these cost fluctuations.
- Conversations with TPI began regarding the creation of an Industry Data Standard. Dan’s goal was to facilitate ease of truss design software communication across proprietary software platforms. Enhancing a CM’s ability to more easily buy a wide array of supplier products supported common sense independence.
- The litmus test was created for truss design software and the best practices document was drafted for companies switching truss design software to comply with the industry “Component Design Software Products” policy and ANSI/TPI 1-2002.
- In concert with WTCA’s Treasurer and Qualtim staff, WTCA’s financial reporting system was updated to a more transparent set of benchmark performance metrics. Dan’s goal was to ensure that any WTCA board member could easily understand WTCA’s finances. Along with this, WTCA’s “extra cash” growth resulted in the implementation of a cash reserves policy and investment plan. Rip and Don were very proud of the work done to take the organization from disaster to success.
The impact of Dan’s association success philosophy was reported to CMs. This weekly report provides depth of information as it relates to Dan’s top ten and the myriad of activities that were being accomplished through policy implementation and teamwork.
Dan was very proud of the close relationship he established with many WTCA members and Qualtim’s staff, where his point of view was, “Sometimes working in association with other component manufacturers is difficult due to our egos and authoritative positions within our own companies. Yet, the experience is profoundly useful for our common good as well as being the most stimulating and pleasant social experience one might seek as an individual. Everyone I have met in the process brings value and knowledge that WTCA and I would otherwise not have.”
As a direct tribute to everyone’s view of Dan’s association work, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009 and received the SBC Industry Leadership Award in 2015.
A Serendipitous Event and Connection
On January 24, 2007, a tour of Clearspan Components took place in advance of a WTCA Mid-South Chapter meeting in Meridian, MS. Traveling together to the meeting, a providential occurrence cemented a deepening friendship between us. Our conversation turned toward a mutual industry friend who was going through a divorce and tough personal time. I mentioned a sermon series that our pastor at Madison, Wisconsin’s Blackhawk Church had given, which was particularly pertinent. My description of the pastor, for some reason, prompted Dan to ask if the pastor was a gymnast. Astounded, I curiously responded, “yes.” Unbelievably, this pastor, Chris Dolson, had been Lisa and Dan’s pastor in Shreveport, LA, and was the pastor that married Lisa and Dan.
The Shared Journey and Belief System
Given this non-random tie, the journey that Dan and I shared became increasingly one of common ground and a common bond.
He was fervently independent, in a manner identical to the founders of WTCA. He knew how to take individual talents and put together great teams by staying focused on common sense tasks. He thoroughly understood the fundamentals of future independent success.
The business of truss and wall panel manufacturing is not intellectually complicated. What makes the business uniquely challenging is that for most CMs, their business model success is completely dependent on key factors outside of their control. Lumber and its cost volatility. Truss plates, design software, and equipment built around the proprietary intellectual property (IP) of others.
Dan would often say, “the CM that buys lumber well will always make money or minimize risk of capital loss.” And, “everyone in this industry thinks that they are the best lumber buyer; truth is few are, because the lumber industry exerts more control, through commodity concepts, than most people think.”
Dan knew that business liberty does not exist in the current CM industry. Many CMs give their knowledge to their suppliers who then gain the value of these CM “ideas.” In addition, a very high percentage of CMs merely pass dollars from their customers to their suppliers. Sadly, in many ways, truss buyers and suppliers have an inordinate amount of control over the margin value a CM gets for their product, ideas, and knowledge.
Today there is much chatter about innovation. It is certainly a nice industry buzzword. However, after some in-depth scrutiny, most often what is found is merely a polishing of tradition-bound concepts. Dan’s goal was always to retain his ideas and knowledge, and then turn those ideas into inspired pursuits. At his core was the belief in undertaking tasks that were manifestly new and different, where the mission was to fuse autonomy and business flexibility into Clearspan Components’ core business. Dan’s business acumen is a testament to offsite construction in 1986 and more so today. His legacy will be the evolution of ideas that continue to grow the Clearspan Components business in unique and varied ways. What is really cool is that all of those ideas are deeply embedded in the core culture of the businesses he loved and worked hard to nurture.
On a more personal level, Dan was honorable, fair, and had keen instincts. Where his relationships were equitable, they led to mutually beneficial teams. When a situation was unfair or had the potential for hurting his team, he protected everyone through the wisdom of seeing clearly what was taking place, creating a plan, and letting his actions speak louder than words, even if it meant completely walking away from a bad contract or business situation.
It is clear that Dan’s love of his nuclear family and his Clearspan Components family was genuine, deep, and profound, yet his first love was the truth of Scripture. This was a foundation set by his father, David Holland. Based on my regular conversations with Dan, what follows is a Scriptural truth he knew well from the book of John: Originally was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. All things, through him, came into existence. Without Him, came into existence, not even one thing. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And, the light, in the darkness shines; and the darkness, thereof, did not see its shine. The Word became flesh, and pitched His tent among us, and we gazed upon his glory, a glory as an Only, begotten from his Father. Full of favor and truth.
We had shared beliefs in the obvious and direct proofs of Scripture’s truth, which when thoughtfully considered, are so simple and fundamental. The first being water, which is the singular chemical compound essential to life. Emblematic of God, Immanuel, and the spirit of mankind, it exists in three phases simultaneously. The second being, if the goal is to eliminate Scripture as truth, all that needs to be done is to find one piece of direct evidence that proves it to be a lie. Direct evidence of a lie always demands a verdict. Archeologists often find artifacts that could potentially disprove Scripture. Does anyone believe that if a finding was contrary to a truth in Scripture, that this Scriptural lie would not be shouted from the mountaintop? We often discussed that true understanding is taking seemingly complicated concepts and providing simple explanations.
A Friendship that Will Never End
What is the definition of a friend where there are no human words big enough to communicate its significance? It is someone who cares deeply enough that their actions fully match and completely encircle their words. Dan directly and intimately observed a very adversarial and hostile business takeover environment. Through this, Dan’s servant heart and encouragement was present hourly, both figuratively and actively, saving the lives of the owners, its core businesses, and its key staff.
Truthful, fair, and dependable action is always an antidote. Our current and future actions will demonstrate how much Dan meant to each of us who loved him.
The loss of Dan’s daily physical presence cuts very deeply. Yet the wonderful news is that I know he is still alive and that I will see him again, sooner than many! I very much look forward to that day.
So, as Dan said often, and with the spirit of Immanuel and Dan driving us on to the next phase of this journey, “Let’s get to it.”
Kirk
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