Dave Hancock is shown in a submitted photo from 2012. Hancock has played a part of several industries in Chippewa Falls.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Listing reasons why Dave Hancock is an icon of the Chippewa Valley is a dangerous thing to do.
First, he’s not done accomplishing his goals. And second, he’s done a lot already.
Hancock is the founder, owner, president and CEO of Spectrum Industries in Chippewa Falls. That furnishings business continues to thrive.
“You really have to be talking to the customers. Stay ahead of the wave, that’s what we charge our team to do. Find out what’s next and get there before the others do,” Hancock said in explaining Spectrum’s success in 2013.
Hancock has done exactly that, allowing him to provide jobs to hundreds of Chippewa County residents over several decades.
In 1960, he co-founded with friend Bill Duren a company called Applied Research and Development on East Columbia Street in Chippewa Falls. The firm moved three years later to a building on West River Street.
Hancock and Duren sold the firm in 1967 to Standard Oil of Indiana. Eventually, Pactiv would take over the business and operated the plant in Chippewa Falls until closing last year.
The 1950 graduate of McDonell Central Catholic High School would eventually have a hand in operating Chippewa Plastics (now Pliant) and Hubbard Scientific.
He stepped in after his friend Duren’s death to run Cignet Films, which became the official photographer of what was called the American Basketball Association (the ABA later merged with the NBA.)
Hancock, whose family came to Chippewa Falls in 1867, continues to shape his company to face today’s challenge of global competition.
Don’t expect that or him to change. “I’ll just keep working forever,” he said in 2003.
Icon-Dave Hancock
This is part of a continuing series in the Herald on "Icons of the Chippewa Valley." The series focuses on the people, places and things that shape our lives.
The series will continue daily in the Herald until Sept. 29.
