A year ago today, Steve's sister, Julie, lost four of her co-workers and friends in a life-altering plane crash.
In memory...
Year after fatal plane crash, Two Rivers grieves yet grows
By WILLIAM RYBERG • REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER • November 13, 2007
One year ago today, the president of Two Rivers Marketing and three employees were killed on a business trip when their plane crashed in Indiana.
Since then, Two Rivers employees have done the nuts-and-bolts work of reassigning duties and continuing to run the company, all while grieving their co-workers and coming to grips with their loss.
"There's rarely a day goes by when I don't think of one or all" of them, said Two Rivers co-founder Brian Jones.
President Tom Dunphy, Leslie O'Bannon, Eric Jacobs and Josh Trainor all died in the crash.
Jones says there have been highs and lows during the past year, but all-in-all the Des Moines company is doing as well as can be expected.
Memories of the four and their roles in building the company will always remain, Jones said. The four "would have wanted us to continue forward and be successful," he added.
The company has actually grown over the past year. About 20 staff members have been added, bringing Two Rivers' work force to about 70.
The company's clients stuck with the advertising firm after the accident and some new ones have been added, boosting their client roster to about 15 to 20.
The agency remained strong in spite of the loss, said Mike Ralston, president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.
"It seems the company is still, in essence, the company it was before these leaders were lost," Ralston said.
Mary Ceynowa, a Colorado consultant who works with Two Rivers, said it helped that the company's business culture downplays internal hierarchy and emphasizes building relationships between clients and all staff members who work on an account.
She says the agency staff worked its way through the multi-stage grieving process, including denial, anger and depression. They've reached the final stage, she said - acceptance.
Some adjustments that needed to be made called for extra sensitivity.
For example, Dunphy's corner office sat empty for months after his death, even though co-owners elected Jones to lead the agency shortly after the crash.
It wouldn't have seemed right to move in right away, Jones said. Leaving it empty too long, however, would seem to be dwelling too much on the past, he added.
"You have to move on. It's tough, but eventually you have to do it," Jones said.
Jones moved in last spring. He works at the same glass-topped desk Dunphy used.
"Every morning, I do think of Tom when I walk in here," Jones said.
Other adjustments have taken time, too.
J.P. Steffen, a member of the information technology group, worked near Trainor.
"He sat in the cubicle right in front of me, and it took me a long time to get comfortable with the fact I couldn't just pop my head up and see that he was working there," Steffen said.
Dunphy and Jones founded the company in 2000, running it as equal partners. Dunphy was president and chief executive, running the creative side of the business. Jones ran the business side as chief financial officer. The company is owned by six staff members and an employee stock ownership plan.
"There's a good culture at work there," said Mike Schreurs, chief executive of Strategic America, a marketing services agency in Clive.
The flight on which the four employees died was only the second time Two Rivers hired a plane for a business trip.
Company leaders decided it was a good idea to spend the extra money for a private plane because the trip could be made in a single day, rather than two or three days with commercial flights.
No one from Two Rivers has flown on a charter flight since the crash, said Jones.
The four deaths - all from a single company - shocked the community. Clients and other advertising and marketing agencies deluged Two Rivers offices with flowers, food and offers of help.
"The whole advertising community was devastated, because we all know each other in one way or another," said Andy Flynn, president of the Flynn Wright agency.
Mara White, public relations director at Flynn Wright, and wife of Jeff White, group leader and co-owner at Two Rivers, pitched in to handle the barrage of media questions around the crash, Flynn said.
Staff members have kept in touch with the families of those who died in the crash. Some employees volunteered to help Leslie O'Bannon's husband refurbish a house the couple had just bought.
Today's anniversary will be low-key at Two Rivers.
There will be an early-morning church service in West Des Moines, and a staff gathering near the end of the day to honor the memory of the four lost colleagues.
A sketch of the four etched in glass will be permanently displayed in the agency's reception area as a tribute to them.
"They helped define who we are today," Jones said.
