Episode Details

EP 2-37 TOM LUBNAU

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there, folks. Welcome to the Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on interesting people here in the Cowboy State. And today's person of Interest is a very interesting person who has devoted his life to serving not just the state of Wyoming, not just his community, but to his family.

This is going to be a really great conversation with Tom Lubnau. First though, I want to make sure that you know about another really great podcast, which is the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement". It is a fantastic resource, really interesting conversations with people who get you where you need to go, and bring you the information you need if you are a serious business person here in the Cowboy State.

So don't miss out on the Wyoming Business Alliance "Business From the Basement" podcast. It's a fantastic program - but don't go away, because first we have to talk to Tom Lubnau, who is truly one of Wyoming's premier public servants. And I'm just so glad to be able to have Tom on the podcast today. Hello, Tom Lubnau, how are you this fine day?

Tom Lubnau:

I'm wonderful. Wendy, thank you for having me - maybe a little too gushing in the compliments, but, but I appreciate what you say.

Wendy Corr:

Well, Tom, you truly have devoted your life to serving people. You've been a member - how long have you been a member of the, and were you a member of, the Gillette Fire Department?

Tom Lubnau:

I was. I was on the fire department for 21 years. I retired in 2016 and that's a sport for young people, and I'm not so young anymore.

Wendy Corr:

But obviously it was important to you to volunteer for that, because all of our fire departments, with the exception I think, there's two fire divisions in the entire state that are not volunteer.

Tom Lubnau:

There's a few that are career based, but it's really important to our communities. And in some places, if you have an emergency, that's who's going to count, is somebody who's a volunteer. And so I just had a house fire in 1992 and had $50,000 damage to the structure, and about $7.50 to the contents.

The fire department here was so professional. I mean, I had my taxes laid out. I was working on my taxes, and it was laid out on a desk, and they put a towel over the top of it and rolled them up, and then took the taxes and put them in a clothes hamper in the garage.

And when I got back into the house, I took that towel and rolled my taxes out. This was back, of course, when you didn't have computer taxes, and all the stacks were exactly the way I left them. And I thought to myself, if I can do that for someone else, what those people did for me, then that would be a good thing to do.

I have had lots of really interesting, sometimes wild experiences fighting fire, and met some of the greatest friends in the whole world, where we've been to the gates of hell and back, and all came out on the good side.

Wendy Corr:

That's fantastic. Again, what a great compliment to the people who volunteer, who put themselves in danger, and to do that.

Tom Lubnau:

It's wonderful, great people, and have great respect for emergency responders. Wish I could physically keep up with the young folks and continue doing it.

Wendy Corr:

But you were able to do it for so long, and that's fantastic. You also have devoted so much of your life. You've been an attorney since the early 80s. So you've been an attorney, but you took that knowledge and that experience, and you said, I