Success Story
Patrick Dunlap
Business Owner
A combination of circumstance led Patrick Dunlap to return to his hometown of Norfolk two years ago. At the time, he had an active medical practice in Joplin, Mo. He also had just married his wife, Janet, owner of a thriving marketing and public relations firm based in Fayetteville, Ark. And Dunlap’s parents, retired physician Jim Dunlap and his wife, Jane, had decided to downsize from their Norfolk farm and move to The Meadows in town.
With all of that in play, Patrick Dunlap and his wife agreed it was the right time to pull up stakes, move to the farm and relocate her business, The Ballard Group, to Norfolk into a Victorian house at 1205 Norfolk Ave. Call it “life circumstances,” he said, that led to a return to his roots and a mid-career change.
Age 50, she is originally from Arkansas. Age 51, he was born in Quantico, Va., and his family moved to Norfolk in 1955, where he graduated from high school in 1971. He went on to graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and earn a medical degree from the NU medical school in 1977 and practice as an OB-GYN physician.
Dunlap isn’t practicing medicine any longer. Now, he heads up Ballard Group Eventures and hosts hunting and fishing adventures for clients at exotic locations around the globe. As its Web site puts it: “After you’ve finally brought the big project to completion, how do you reward yourself? It could be safari hunting in South Africa, reeling in a 300-pound flounder in Alaska, or scuba diving in Maui.”
Dunlap has guided them all. Last spring, he scouted an island near Juneau, Alaska, for a future venue. A year ago, he led hunting trips twice to South Africa. Stuffed heads of some of the big-game trophies shot on past trips hang on the walls of his office. More mounts are waiting to be finished at an Omaha taxidermy company.
As part of their international ventures, the couple also own Bella Italy Co., which takes clients to that country. Dunlap said he is fortunate to be able to return to the Norfolk area, which has a lot to offer.
“You can be very efficient working in a small community,” he said. “It’s nice to be 10 minutes from everything, and the cost of doing business is lower.”
Both he and his wife are working on promoting hunting opportunities in the region. They organized the first Northeast Nebraska Sportsman’s Expo, which featured rocker-hunter Ted Nugent and humorist Baxter Black, last September in Madison. And they’ve been involved with the Cedar Valley Hunt Club at Stanton and Outback Adventures at Bassett. Some clients have even come from Montana to the area to hunt white-tailed deer because all they have in their state is mule deer.
“There is a world of hunting and fishing opportunities here that needs to be marketed here,” she said.
Her side of the business focuses on the full range of meeting and event planning - everything from trade shows and company retreats to team building programs and grand openings, even down to arranging catering and parties. The Ballard Group employs seven in Norfolk and still has a staff of four in Fayetteville, Ark.
“We need to be selling Nebraska,” she said. “We have a whole bunch of undeveloped opportunities here.”
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News
