After 21 years as manager, Craig Linden retired from Kamps Propane Alpine on Aug. 18.
Kamps Propane Sales Executive Richard Edwords said Linden was not only manager of Kamps Propane Alpine but was also a valuable contributor to the community.
“He was very involved with the Alpine Chamber of Commerce,” he said. “He had a degree in marketing, which was quite unusual for a propane manager. He was very active with his customer base and liked to help people out. We donated a lot to organizations like the Alpine Kiwanis Club, fundraisers with the Chamber, and different church groups.”
Edwards said Linden was able to communicate well with customers, especially with seniors and people having trouble paying their bills.
“He would work with them really hard to keep them from their service stopped because they were having trouble making their payment,” he said. “To the point to where he even funded some of them with his own money. That is unusual for a manager to do. He would assist seniors especially. He was extremely customer oriented.”
Edwords said Linden had an out-of-the-box view of marketing, even providing helicopters at special events.
“The most important thing is that he was a really great manager,” he said. “For a guy who spent so much time with his customer base, he has since retired and is enjoying life with his wife, kids, and grandkids. He has a really nice family. We had a nice, simple ceremony for him, he said his final farewell and he is going to enjoy the rest of his life with his grandkids and some of his hobbies. We all wish the best for him at Kamps Propane.”
Kamps Propane lead driver/assistant manager Ivan Flor has worked for Kamps for 22 years and was there when Linden came onboard.
“He was a great guy and a great boss,” he said. “The best I have ever had. He was really good to us. He was kind and sincerely cared about us. He was great leading us as the company changed, making Kamps a really successful business. He concentrated on customer service, making sure they got the best service we could provide. He managed to take over areas that we had struggled to do business in before he came to work with us. We went from around 1,500 customers to nearly 8,000 customers over that time. He pushed us to keep growing, always making sure that our customers were happy while we grew. He was instrumental in organizing our growth.”