BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Tim Hanigan

I was born and raised on a farm outside of Denison, Iowa.   Denison is a small town in the southwest part of the state, known for meat packing plants (the first IBP).   As a typical farm kid, most of my free time was spent on a tractor, or milking cows.  My entrance to college was more just a chance to be free of the farm, rather than a burning desire to be a professional. 

I entered the University of Iowa in 1983.  U of I was a liberal arts college on the east side of Iowa.  The campus was a mix of mostly urban Iowa kids, with a strong presence of suburban Chicago students, and athletes recruited from the south.  Many of the friendships I made were with kids who were Jewish, raised in Chicago, and spoke of music and culture I had never experienced.  At the same time, I found I actually enjoyed the required liberal arts courses in literature and philosophy.  As a practical farm kid, though, I pursued a biology degree, thinking of medical school, as my older brother had done.  I worked in a research lab cleaning instruments and equipment during the school year, but I returned home to work in the packing plant during the summer and breaks.   

In the fall of 1988, I entered Dental school at the University of Iowa, switching from Medicine because of the brutal lifestyle my older brother was experiencing.  In order to specialize in orthodontics, I had to apply and be accepted to a residency upon completion of dental school.  I had spent nine years in Iowa City, and had never lived outside the state, so I was eager to experience a different part of the country.   I accepted an orthodontic residency position at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1992.  Michigan would normally have been out of my reach, but I had worked my way up in the research lab to conducting independent projects, and I had learned how to perform genetic manipulations and tissue culturing- two very desirable skills to professors in research institutions such as Michigan.  My background caught the attention of the admissions committee when I was interviewing for one of their six residency positions.

Residency was a combination of clinics, research towards a thesis, and a small amount of teaching to the dental students- which is how I met my future wife Christina.  I pursued my thesis outside the orthodontic department, following up on my background in embryologic developmental research.  At the end of my three year residency, I either had to continue past my masters research, and enter a four year PHD program or leave and enter private practice.  I had been paying out of state tuition in Ann Arbor, and borrowing for twelve years, and my student debt had ballooned out of control, so private practice was the only option.  Christina and I had been making wedding plans, but she had no desire to go to rural Iowa, and I had tired of the brutal Michigan winters.  We chose Colorado Springs as a compromise, lured by the mountains and associate positions in two different practices.   

The Colorado Springs practice I joined had satellite offices in La Junta and Lamar, Colorado that I was covering alone.  I developed relationships with family Dentists in Western Kansas who started referring their orthodontic patients to me in Lamar.  Eventually I noticed patients driving from Garden City, which indicated the area was probably underserved.

When I wanted to practice solo, my student debt was still so large I couldn’t secure financing in Colorado Springs.  One of my family dentist contacts used his influence with a small community bank in Garden, who offered me the chance to start a practice here.  Christina and I moved here in 1997, and both opened new offices.  We since have had three girls, and we have made Garden City our home.

My hobbies are remnants of my past.  I enjoy the physical labor of my rock garden, flyfishing in Colorado, skiing and ice skating with the kids.  Christina and I take every chance to travel to practically any city to experience theater, concerts, diverse restaurants, and an occasional hockey game.  But I particularly like being back in a farming community, and I am intensely interested in the farm practices and dairy businesses in Western Kansas.  I wanted to serve on the Western Kansas Community Foundation board because this community has been so supportive of me, and it fits with my commitment to acknowledge all of the help I have been given by offering the same to others.