David Reetz remembers riding the bus from his family’s Potter, Nebraska, dry-land farm into his high school in the early 1960s wanting his life to make a difference.
Fast forward to a recent trip to Kauai, Hawaii, where the 80-year-old longtime Powell resident was sitting in a hot tub, and this 6-foot-3, 250-pound guy extends a hand to help him out.
He later understands the man is staying in the condo above his and, as Reese is in the unit below, hears him talking to someone about his business plan.
The Powell real estate agent, co-founder of the Wyoming Business Council, and longtime economic developer and business recruiter’s ears perk up.
Later, he encounters the man outside the condo and offers a quick prayer.
“He’s a Yale graduate, so he’s a smart guy, NFL eight years, and he’s coming down the stairs,” Reetz recalled. “I said, 'God, if you want me to talk to him …'”
And so Reetz learned that his vacation neighbor and current Hollywood ad producer who has put three ads in Super Bowl broadcasts, worked and filmed in 30 different countries is thinking about starting a business in Montana.
“I said, ‘What? You need to come to Wyoming,’” Reetz said.
As a former member of Wyoming’s onetime Steering Committee for Business Development, Reetz set up a plan with his new friend.
Reetz flies back from Hawaii on a Monday, flies to Denver and travels to Cheyenne on Tuesday and escorts the man to the governor’s office.
Then he introduced his Hollywood friend to the CEO of the Wyoming Business Alliance, the CEO of Cheyenne LEADS, Secretary of State Chuck Gray.
Then Reetz hears those words every economic developer at heart loves — even if now without a formal title.
“He said, ‘I am going to move my company to Wyoming,’” Reetz said.
Governors’ Guy
So goes the life of the University of Wyoming business major who obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees on the campus and has been a champion and advocate for Powell, Park County, and the state during a lifetime of what many might describe as overachievement.
He was appointed by Gov. Mike Sullivan to the Wyoming Community College Commission, Gov. Jim Geringer to the Steering Committee for Business Development, Gov. Dave Freudenthal to the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund Board and reappointed by Gov. Matt Mead.
He was elected to the Wyoming Humanities Council Board in 2012, served on the National Federation of Humanities Councils, and was inducted into the Wyoming Business Hall of Fame in 2015.
Reetz was the founder, and former president and executive director, of the Heart Mountain Foundation and served as president of the Powell Valley Economic Alliance and the Powell Valley Chamber of Commerce.
While leading the chamber he successfully co-authored an application that garnered Powell an All America City status in 1994.
His working career began in education at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls where he served in the office of the chancellor for business and finance.
He and his wife Glo, a native of Powell, moved to Wyoming, where he became the dean of administrative services and chief financial officer for Northwest College.
After 10 years there, he joined what is now First Bank of Wyoming in Powell for 18 years, where he was vice president and the bank’s point man for economic development.
Dick Nelson, the bank’s board president, told him his job description included business and economic development.
Man With A Mission
“It was a natural move for me,” Reetz said. “I wanted to serve the community, to build the community. The downtown was in shambles. There were 35 empty commercial buildings. Things weren’t great.”
That role led to his involvement on boards, councils and commissions locally, regionally and at the state level.
Reetz points to his recruitment of Wall Street bond firm Fitch Investor Services’s database unit to the city as a major step forward.
The firm’s CEO owned a ranch in the region and they became friends.
During a conversation, Reetz just asked him to consider moving the company to Powell, telling him “we have the best workers in the world (and) you’ve got a great tax environment.”
“It took us three-and-a-half years to take care of the downtown project,” Reetz said. “And then I was a part of writing the grants for five business parks. We redid the downtown and became an All-American City.
"That was something I felt like we really needed to do.”
That designation resulted in a ceremony at the White House during the Clinton administration.
Powell Mayor Janna Frazier Harkrider accepted a plaque and “pat on the back” from President Clinton during the event, the Casper Star-Tribune reported on Sept. 9, 1994.
While serving as the president of the Powell Chamber of Commerce, Reetz recalls a Japanese man walking into the office and telling him about how a Japanese internment camp during World War II had been established in the area.
Reetz said he loves history and was surprised to learn about Heart Mountain.
Heart Mountain
“I said, ‘What, we’ve got to do something about this,” Reetz said. That led to the creation of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation where he helped gain National Historic Site status and launch the construction of a $5.3 million interpretive learning center.
Reetz said one his favorite projects and roles during his career came in 1995 when he was asked by Governor Geringer to chair a committee to raise money for the christening and commission of the USS Wyoming, an Ohio-class nuclear submarine.
The father of three girls and grandfather of 11 lists more than three dozen roles on boards, commissions, councils and and community service in a biographical sketch of his life.
Reetz looks back on all of his roles and titles and sees that “he was always willing to say ‘Yes,’” to those who asked.
“My wife was always wondering what I was going to be doing next and my children,” he said. “But I really felt as though I needed to show my children that I’m working for your future.
"I’m working for your children’s children, and in fact, that’s what I was (doing).”
Reetz said the awards and recognition he’s achieved have not supplanted the “farm boy” who learned to work hard in the Nebraska fields and wanted to make a difference.
He is a father and grandfather who hopes to leave something behind.
Goal For Grandchildren
When each of his 11 grandchildren turned 13, he and his wife took them for a week wherever they wanted to go and tried “speak into their lives.”
A granddaughter who was an aspiring singer at the time asked to go to New York City.
They took her to Carnegie Hall and as they listened to the performer on the stage, Reetz felt compelled to tell his granddaughter that she would sing there one day.
She has, as well as the Lincoln Center, Reetz said.
His grandson, now 30, just returned with him from a four-day trip to a World War II museum.
When he was 13, he was not interested in history. But Reetz took him to the Manassas Civil War battlefield in Virginia.
“That’s what hooked him on history,” Reetz said.
Although he had a five-bypass heart surgery a few years ago, he continues to go to work.
His surgery led to the sale of his wife’s real estate business where he had been working with her for more than a decade, and to getting rid of some cattle and chickens at his home and the chores involved.
But it’s the people part of the business and the farm boy who wants to make a difference that propels him toward tomorrow.
Reetz said as a man of faith, he turns to the Bible for guidance and in addition to all his other commitments during his life, he has served churches as a worship leader and Bible teacher.
The salesman and cheerleader for Wyoming understands rejection and persistence, having been “blackballed” as an out-of-state freshman from a University of Wyoming fraternity only to join as a sophomore and be named its “senior of the year” three years later.
As the farm boy who wants to make a difference, when a Native American “hobo” showed up in Powell with a bowie knife on his side at the convenience store, Reetz entered a conversation that led to lodging, an invitation to church and friendship.
Reetz provided the man transportation to New Mexico where he is working in a carnival and said they still stay in touch. He intends to keep him a friend for life.
Same with the ex-NFL player, who pulled him out of the hot tub.
Reetz said the economic development and recruitment to Wyoming is not more important than helping a man with a need.
“It’s my friendship with (the man) that matters,” he said.
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
David Reetz said leading efforts to fundraise for the christening and commissioning of the USS Wyoming submarine was a favorite and fulfilling assignment. Here he is shown with USS Wyoming’s captain and executive officer. (Courtesy David Reetz) 
David Reetz met his wife, Glo, at the University of Wyoming. He said she supported him during all his activities over the years. (Courtesy David Reetz) 
David Reetz, front center with bow tie, poses with his family, grandparents, and cousins after his Lutheran confirmation day. His faith remains an important part of his life. (Courtesy David Reetz)
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
