Gilroy Arvig of Crosslake received the Dunwoody 2008 Alumni Entrepreneur Award on Sept. 24. The Alumni Entrepreneur Award began in 1982 and recognizes alumni who began or significantly expanded their business and whose vision, initiative and enterprise exemplify American entrepreneurship.
Arvig has been an entrepreneur since age 20. A year after graduating in 1953 from Dunwoody Institute with a degree in electricity, Arvig became president and general manager of Arvig Telephone Company when his father died.
The family-run company provided telephone access to Pine River and Pequot Lakes. Arvig had to quickly get up to speed with all aspects of operations - from telephone line repair to hiring and managing operators to billing customers.
After a two-year break to serve in the Army Signal Corp., Arvig returned to Arvig Telephone and with a team of family members grew it to a company of 200 employees serving more than 40,000 customers in Minnesota and North Dakota.
The company soon became Arvig Telcom Holding Co. as the Arvigs expanded with USLink, long distance and Interlake cable television.
"Thanks to the technical expertise I learned at Dunwoody, I was able to keep up with industry engineering and change," Arvig said.
Because of his experience and expertise, Arvig has been selected for industry-related positions over the years, both for statewide and national organizations. He retired in 1994, but continues to serve as a board member of two telephone holding companies as well as on the board of a local bank.
He has also taken an active role in the Pequot Lakes community, serving as mayor for seven years and school board member for 12 years.
