THE BOOT ST O R I E S F R O M T H E T E X A S H I L L C O U N T RY
H O W A B U S I N E SS W O M A N A N D P H I L A N T H R O P I ST ST R I V E S TO P R ES E R V E H I STO RY
A CO U P L E ’ S H O M E F I L L E D W I T H FA I T H A N D FAV O R I T ES
2022 | ISSUE 3
A FO R M I D A B L E W H I S K E Y T E A M A N D T H E K E YS TO S U CC E SS
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Photo by Trish Rawls
ABOVE: Historic Main Street in Fredericksburg is the heart of this thriving town.
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WHY FREDERICKSBURG?
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magine you own and manage a U.S. manufacturing company whose factories are in Mexico. Where would you have your home and headquarters? Or where would you choose to live if you were an executive with a global technology company, leading sales efforts across several states? Or if you were a lawyer charged with protecting the trademark of a major retail chain everywhere it operates around the world? Most enterprising professionals like that would probably gravitate to large metropolitan areas, ones with major airports. But not Mickey and Teresa Dunn or Chris and Allison McDade—the people just described. They chose the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg. Why Fredericksburg? We asked them. And we asked how they work and live in a place that’s somewhat off the beaten path. Here are their stories.
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THE DUNNS In 1990, Mickey Dunn started a company in his native Georgia that cut and sewed fabrics for apparel manufacturers. Having played baseball a decade before at what is now Kennesaw State University, he named it Major League Inc. In the years since, the privately held company has moved all of its manufacturing to plants in Mexico and diversified to make products for the automobile industry, including seat covers, steering wheels, and air bags. With the diversification came a new name, ML Industries. Along the way, Mickey met Mexico-born Teresa Ground, who was a regional manager for VF Corporation, one of the world’s largest apparel manufacturers. She became Mrs. Dunn and ML’s chief operating officer. The company’s old name may be gone, but “major league” still describes what it has become. ML now has five plants in Mexico and employs 5,000 people worldwide. It produces 250,000 airbags a week, making it the largest privately held airbag company in all of North America. And more than 470 million vehicles now have at least one ML part in them. The Dunns oversee it all from their home and headquarters in Fredericksburg. How did they come to be there? By a somewhat circuitous route. They first moved from Georgia to McAllen, Texas, in 2004 to be closer to their factories. During weekend getaways, they discovered the Hill Country and the Rose Hill Manor (now Rose Hill Retreat) bed and breakfast in Stonewall. “It was quite a place, a Victorian home overlooking 25 acres,” Mickey says. “We really enjoyed it and would go every six months. On one of those trips, we decided to visit Fredericksburg and fell in love with the place.” They loved it so much that they moved both themselves and the company there in 2012. At first, they occupied a home in town. But in 2015, they saw an ad on TV 58
for Boot Ranch. They were intrigued. “Right away, we wanted to find out where Boot Ranch was,” Teresa says. “We laugh about how surprised we were that it was only 15 minutes from our house.” They joined the Club to play golf, then bought a 14-acre lot overlooking the 6th fairway, breaking ground on a home there in 2019. Completed in 2021, the 10,000-squarefoot home was built for fun and entertainment, with a sports bar dubbed Dunn’s Saloon, a golf simulator room, a home gym, an elegant wine cellar, a bunk room for visiting grandchildren, and a guest house. Mickey likes to cook for their guests. “We have kitchens everywhere,” says Teresa, laughing—one in the main house, one in the guest house, another in the Saloon, and one outside equipped with a smoker and Green Egg grill. “It does look massive,” Teresa says of the single-story house. “But we built a very functional home and everything is very organized, which takes pressure off of us. It’s made our life simpler, which is important because we run a very complicated business.” While they maintain the headquarters in town, the Dunns work primarily
from their compact home office. “Instead of having big, traditional, separates offices (in the house), we did one office with everything together,” she says. “We can work side by side and talk about business. And if one of us has a conversation going on, the other can step out.” Teresa adds, “We’ve been doing this for years. It’s nothing new for us to work from the house and then travel (to the factories).” Fredericksburg may be farther from the plants than McAllen is, but that’s not a problem for the Dunns. They have their own private jet and pilot based at the Fredericksburg airport. “We can get on our plane and be at our factories in an hour and 15 minutes,” she says. And because of the pandemic, most of their factory meetings now happen online. The business itself may be complicated, but running it from Fredericksburg: “It’s not complicated at all,” Teresa says. And at the end of the work day, they’re just a five-minute drive from the Boot Ranch Clubhouse, where they like to dine. And even closer to the Metzger Market, where they like to get ice cream. “The ice cream is the best,” Mickey says. Adds Teresa, “Boot Ranch and our house are perfect for the life we live.”
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LEFT: The Dunns enjoy 20-mile Hill Country views from their east-facing rear terraces. BELOW: Mickey and Teresa Dunn.
Exterior home photo by Will Barkley ISSUE 3
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TOP: Chris and Allison McDade. ABOVE: The McDade’s moved to Fredericksburg so their three daughters could thrive in the small community. RIGHT: The daughters each have their own hobbies in and out of Boot Ranch.
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THE McDADES Chris and Allison McDade were a big-city couple with big-city careers. Chris is a senior manager with Apple, responsible for sales to educational institutions and state and local governments across the country. Allison is a trademark attorney and worked for Dallas-based 7-Eleven for many years, protecting the retail chain’s brand worldwide. Both grew up in Dallas. They moved to Austin in 1998 when Chris landed a job with Apple, then returned to Dallas in 2012 to be closer to their families. Their jobs enabled them to work from almost any home base. Over the years, they visited Fredericksburg often. They liked both its appearance and its friendly, small-town atmosphere—a relaxing reprieve from urban life. They liked it so much, in fact, that they bought a lot at Boot Ranch with the idea of eventually building a retirement home there.
However, a upcoming event caused them to accelerate their plan in 2017. Their oldest daughter, Paige, would be starting high school in just a few years. In Dallas, that could mean attending a public school with 900 students in her graduating class. Chris and Allison thought about their visits to Fredericksburg. “We’d talk to teenagers we’d meet in town, and they all liked growing up here, being big fish in a smaller pond,” Allison says. They thought about the life they wanted for Paige and her younger sisters, Caroline and Leah. In Dallas, they would be just the opposite of the Fredericksburg kids, small fish in a very big pond. The parents realized that was not how they wanted them to grow up. So that year, the family moved to Fredericksburg, buying a house for interim quarters, and began construction on their Boot Ranch home. They moved in in late 2020. As their parents hoped, the girls have thrived in Fredericksburg. Paige, who is now 15, plays on the Fredericksburg High School golf team. Caroline, 13, plays tennis and volleyball. And Leah, 10, is engaged in a town theater program. She recently launched rockets from the Boot Ranch activity field. Meanwhile, their parents are able to continue working—now from their new home. Chris spends most of his job time on the phone or online, with occasional trips to call on customers. “My job has always been nearly 100 percent email,” Allison says, “So it wasn’t all that weird to work remotely.” She resigned from her job with 7-Eleven in 2020, but continues to handle project assignments for the company. And, she says, “I run a free Uber service for the kids. I’m also playing mah-jongg, which is not something I ever thought I’d be doing, and heading an auction for a gala at the hospital.” In other words, the entire family has happily embraced life in this smaller pond. “It’s a fantastic place to have as a home base for work and to raise a family,” says Chris. “The amount of time I can spend with my daughters and how much we do outdoors has exceeded my expectations.”
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