Page 29 - Arkansas Trucking Report Volume 23 Issue 2

American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear
talks about the common ground beneath our feet

By Bethany May
Managing Editor
“KIDS WERE UNBRIDLED in Nebraska and most places in
the Midwest… We were free to go from dawn to dusk. Parents
didn’t question where we were. We were miles out in the coun-
try fishing or riding our bikes, or doing things we probably
shouldn’t have been doing, but parents didn’t worry about their
kids. Because they knew they’d be home in time for dinner
every night.”
Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations,
sits in his office at the national ATA headquarters in Arlington, Va. describ-
ing his upbringing in the small town of Auburn, Ne., home to about 3000
residents. Leaning forward in his chair, he is well-coifed, polished, profes-
sional. There’s no visual evidence that he spent his childhood swinging from
a railroad bridge out into the Little Nemaha River or jumping out of pickup
trucks to swipe pumpkins past their prime from neighborhood porches after
Halloween.
To trace his history from a cross-country running, rural Nebraskan
teenager to the head of the biggest trucking interest in the nation, you
must span five continents, work in two war zones, fall in love with and
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ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 2 2018 29