Family-run Red Deer Dairy Queen marks 50 years of soft-serve monarchy
The Hamill family has owned and operated Dairy Queen restaurants in Red Deer for half a century
The owners of a Red Deer Dairy Queen are marking a cool milestone this year — 50 years and three generations after opening their first grill and chill, the family-run business is still churning out blizzards and burgers.
It all started with Gordon Hamill. He was working at a bank in Estevan, Sask. in the early 1960s when he decided he liked the town's Dairy Queen ice cream so much he'd buy a franchise, passing up the chance to join his family in the oil trucking business.
He bought the Dairy Queen near 43rd Street and Gaetz Avenue in 1967, and moved his family to Red Deer. At that time, the restaurant only opened in the summer because it didn't serve hot food.
In the mid 1980s his son, Rob Hamill, returned to Red Deer after finishing his junior hockey career to help manage the restaurant.
He already knew the ropes — he grew up in the ice-cream shop and started working there when he was nine years old.
"I used to hang out in the back and look over the counter," Hamill said. "When people got up, I would run out and wipe the tables so more customers could sit down at a clean table."
Since his father's death in 2011, Hamill has been the owner of that same Dairy Queen and three others in Red Deer. He credits the success of the restaurants to the lessons taught by his father while he ran the family business.
Hamill said his father found it important to be involved in the city.
"He always thought that if you work hard and if you became a good corporate citizen, became a part of the city, the city in return would take care of you," Hamill said.
"That formula has worked pretty well for our family. Fifty years later, still going strong."
Third generation stepping in
Hamill has passed on that same lesson to his son, Drew, who is now general manager of the first DQ restaurant the family owned.
Like his father, Drew also was raised in the restaurant.
"When my mom and dad were working long hours, and there was no babysitter, I was upstairs playing with my Legos," he said.
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Drew briefly left Red Deer to attend business school. He had plans to take his career in a different direction than fast food and ice cream, but after his grandfather's funeral in 2011, he realized he missed the family business.
He plans to take over the family franchise when his father retires. Keeping the business in the family for another 50 years is always a possibility.
"It's never been forced down my throat. I'll never force it on my kids. If they want to do it, fantastic," Drew said.
"We'll make it to a hundred, no problem."
