Faces of the Road: Longtime Wreaths Across America transportation director Don Queeney

Don Queeney
Age: 62
Occupation: Director of Transportation, Wreaths Across America
Past jobs: Commercial Fisherman, Household Mover, Founder of Hampton Roads Moving and Storage 

Don Queeney isn't your typical trucker. Clean-cut and broad-shouldered, with a frame seared by decades of grueling physical labor, the former commercial fisherman and longtime household mover communicates with the soft-spoken eloquence of a corporate officer. This is, in fact, a role he has occupied throughout a long and successful career as the cofounder of Hampton Roads Moving and Storage.

Don QueeneyBut there is something else that makes him stand out. Despite being in the business of trucking since the 1970s, he exudes mission. In his role as transportation director for Wreaths Across America, overseeing the shipment of more three million wreaths throughout the United States, Europe, and anywhere else in the world where an American soldier's remains are interred, that sense of mission has served him well. While many his age in this industry wind up jaded and bitter, Queeney stands out, for this gearjammer, as a source of personal inspiration.

I recently had the honor to sit down with the old bedbugger and talk about his "why." Here's what he had to say:

"My father was the kind of guy [who] would drive down the road on vacation, and if he saw a fellow on his front porch, he'd slow down, roll his window down and say, 'How you doing, old fella?', and just keep on going. [He] taught me how to give back."

In my last edition of the “Faces of the Road” series, I quoted Don Queeney speaking to his feeling that Wreaths Across America is more than just a big ceremonial project. “It's become a mindset,” he said. “It's a way of thinking about things – honoring our veterans on as grassroots a level as possible, [and] engaging the American public to do so.” … 

He had well more to say on that score: