Knee injuries from his junior high football days in Texas quashed Dwain Newman’s dreams of being a sports star. Still, with determined ambition and a willingness to take chances, he played several sports throughout his youth and went on to become a successful businessman in Northwest Arkansas – even though his bum right knee has caused a slight limp most of his 92 years. While his life has been full and rewarding, getting older has brought its share of heartache and challenges.
In 2023, he lost the love of his life and wife of nearly 44 years, Glenda Newman. He recently had to sell his car after giving up driving due to failing eyesight, a major frustration for someone so independent. He bought a powerful magnifying glass and reading light about a year ago to hopefully help him, but his deteriorating vision now makes many shapes fuzzy at best.
Each morning, Dwain turns on the big screen TV in his living room, listening to news, sports and stock reports while drinking his standard two cups of coffee. He’s outgoing, charismatic and grateful for a long life infused with lasting friendships, extended family, business development and considerable travel.
Dwain’s approach to sports during his youth – a mix of competitive spirit and healthy ego –
continued on into his career: “I wanted to be the kingfish. I wanted to jump the highest in our neighborhood. You know, who could throw the football or the baseball the farthest, or who could run the fastest from this post to that post.”
Building a Family and a Career
Dwain grew up in Borger, Texas, a small oil and gas town north of Amarillo, where his dad was a superintendent doing pipeline construction for transferring natural gas. The landscape was flat and tan, and each Saturday he swept the front and side yards where grass refused to grow. The town of 29,000 was surrounded by vast ranch land.
He wasn’t thrilled when his family moved to Springdale in late April 1951 during his junior year of high school, causing him to leave behind lifelong friends. But he was soon captivated by the mountains, rivers and streams — a 180-degree change from the Texas panhandle — and remembers inviting a beautiful classmate to the junior-senior dance.
Dwain then started dating another young woman his senior year of high school. After graduating in 1952, he had planned to play basketball at the University of Arkansas on a scholarship, but he got his girlfriend pregnant that summer. He knew he couldn’t juggle attending college and supporting a family, so they married in August and moved to Odessa, Texas, to start fresh.
He took a newspaper job in Oklahoma City, where he was paid journeyman’s wages and stayed for six and a half years. He worked in the production area, making the metal plates used on the press. He also joined the local union and eventually became its president at age 25. Dwain was making $3,000 a year, a salary higher than any of his friends who’d gone to college. He and his wife bought a house and a decent car, and then they bought a better car. They upgraded to a better house — paying $13,400. Both making money and saving money, Dwain felt he was finding success.
With $6,500 in savings, he and his wife decided to return to Arkansas. Her dad owned restaurants in Fayetteville and Springdale, and they opened one too. For various reasons, their business didn’t succeed, and they started going broke. Dwain sold off the equipment in piecemeal fashion and had around $2,000 left.
By then, they had three children – Mike, Jeff and Kristy – and Dwain didn’t want to return to newspapers. So, he answered a newspaper ad for a job with a plywood company based in Phoenix, Arizona, that was putting in a new business in Springdale. Gateway Plywood and Door Company was a division of International Forest Products, and they sought someone with a salesman’s approach.
Dwain spent three years there in sales, three years as manager and three years heading operations – also over the Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Dallas stores. He founded Industrial Leasing and after two years brought on the late Jim Cypert as a partner. They ran the company together for about 25 years, operating commercial warehouses, until Jim bought him out.
Finding Success in the Lumber Business
Soon, Dwain built their family a nice, nearly 2,000-square-foot house in west Springdale, with a double-car garage, two full baths and a big backyard deck. After 12 years there, they built a bigger house in east Springdale, close to the lake. Even with his career success – and maybe partly because of it – Dwain’s marriage was unraveling. Their divorce lasted three years.
Their son, Mike, who had started classes at the University of Arkansas, eventually got involved with drugs, and the habit persisted for years. Tragically, Mike took his own life in his early 30s.
In his career, Dwain left the plywood company and founded National Window Company in Springdale in 1972, which later evolved into National Home Centers. He opened a Fort Smith location in 1977, naming Danny Funderburg as general manager – who later became president and COO. With Dwain as founder and chief executive officer, the company focused on sales to professional builders and contractors.
With his company doing well, Dwain was ready to take another gamble, and he called the former Glenda Hanby and asked her on a lunch date. He and his ex-wife and Glenda and her late husband had played bridge together, but were just casual friends. They soon became inseparable, married in December 1979 and went on to enjoy a wonderful partnership for four-plus decades. He also happily gained two bonus sons, Blake and Brent Hanby, who were 12 and 14 at the time.
Glenda had grown up in Crossett, and after graduating high school, she became Arkansas State Forestry Queen in 1960 and traveled the state for the next year promoting the timber industry. She also attended the University of Arkansas.
When they got together, Glenda was a founding partner in The Designer’s Touch, a boutique interior design firm, with her friends, Betty Bailey, Carol Lynn Gibson and the late Conjie Williams. Eventually, Dwain asked Glenda to take over the accounting duties for National Home Centers. She served as corporate executive assistant and vice president. She also managed the company’s contractor incentive travel program for over 30 years, taking customers to destinations all over the world, including Costa del Sol in Spain; Geneva, Switzerland; the French Riviera; Vienna, Austria; Germany and Alaska.
His stepson Brent eventually became the company’s chief financial officer, and his son Jeff became the senior merchandise manager. Dwain served as president of the National Association of Home Centers, which included several hundred lumber dealers. He poured himself into the company, creating a handbook for every area. “I was interested in people. I treated customers good. I treated employees good,” he said.
In 1993, the company became publicly held, raising $20 million in capital to open new stores and compete with Home Depot and Lowe’s as they entered local markets. In 1998, the company sold the Fayetteville store to Home Depot and the Rogers store to Lowe’s. The company returned to private ownership in 2001. Over time, National Home Centers became the largest contractor supply in Arkansas selling to builders – with 13 locations, around 320 trucks and 180 forklifts, and more than 1,350 employees. At its pinnacle of success, the company ranked No. 31 among private companies in Arkansas in 2006, earning a revenue of $273.1 million that year. Dwain had weathered several recessions over the decades, but the Great Recession from 2006 to 2010 proved to be the biggest challenge. About 1,100 lumber yards closed across the country. When Dwain was 76, they decided to sell National Home Centers to Stock Building Supply, a North Carolina-based company, in April 2010.
Throughout his 38 years of running the family-controlled company, Dwain still found time to give back to his community. He volunteered his leadership for several organizations, and at a young age co-chaired Springdale United Methodist Church’s building capital campaign and its construction committee. He later founded the church’s foundation, becoming its first chairman.
Dwain also shared his time and resources with United Way, WATCH D.O.G.S., the NWA Home Builder’s Association, Springdale Jaycees, the Springdale Variance Board and the Springdale Planning Commission – making it no surprise when he was awarded the Springdale Chamber’s Civic Service Award.
Enjoying Retirement at BTV
After selling the company, Dwain and Glenda visited Butterfield Trail Village to explore the living options. Longtime friend Marge Branch encouraged them to became Carriage Club members, and they made plans to eventually move into an apartment. They wanted to relieve their children from worrying about their care in their later years.
In 2016, they moved into their spacious apartment that’s filled with paintings and photographs from travels, along with family portraits and snapshots. Glenda had asked him how he’d spend his free time in retirement, and he said he’d decided to get more involved in the stock market. He made his first stock option purchase that year and still enjoys actively managing investments.
Getting into her car after playing bridge, Glenda fell and shattered her knee in 2018. Subsequent visits to the doctor over five years led to the discovery that her body was riddled with cancer. She died within two weeks of the cancer diagnosis. Dwain feels lost without Glenda and misses her terribly, especially the daily companionship and conversations with her sitting next to him in their living room recliners. “She was totally devoted to me, and I was totally devoted to her. And I think she got shortchanged quite a bit,” he said.
These days, he stays actively engaged with his many friends and some former employees who also live at BTV. He often joins friends for dinner in the dining room or watches televised Razorback games with them. He also enjoys attending Razorback games, like a recent women’s basketball game, with his and Glenda’s children and grandchildren. He regularly makes calls to family and friends, including his daughter Kristy, who raises miniature horses in Grand View, Texas; his younger sister in Springdale; and his former daughter-in-law, now honorary daughter, Michelle Hanby. He will always treasure his many lifelong relationships.
Words by Michelle Parks | Photos by Stephen Ironside
