Rock-star status

CRYSTAL RIVER — In the world of air conditioning, winning the Carrier Corp. President’s Award is like a music artist winning a Grammy.

MATTHEW BECK/Chronicle

Dave Hutchins was recently named into the Carrier Hall of Fame, an honor only 12 others in the country have received.

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MATTHEW BECK/Chronicle

The Carrier Hall of Fame honor is a lifetime achievement award. A large diamond encrusted ring comes with the honor.

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Dave Hutchins, owner of Bay Area Air Conditioning & Heating in Crystal River, was presented April 1 with his fifth President’s Award in Las Vegas.

He was also inducted into the Carrier Hall of Fame, which is equivalent in the music world of being named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At 62, he is the youngest of the 13 Carrier Hall of Fame members — a rock star in the A/C world.

“This is a lifetime achievement award, for his whole body of work,” said Cliff Pierson, Bay Area general manager. “He’s amazing. He knows more about air conditioning than anybody I’ve ever known.”

Hutchins brought Bay Area from Safety Harbor to Citrus County in 1978, coming here to work with local builder George Rusaw.

Hutchins got his start in the business as a teenager when he got a job with a company that owned a Standard Oil gas station, an appliance store and air conditioning business all on the same property.

“I never knew where I’d be working,” he said. “I liked the air conditioning and appliance part the best and stayed with that.”

After 10 years of working for various companies, Hutchins found himself out of a job when his last employer went out of business. So, with $5,000 from a home equity line of credit, he opened his own business.

Now, some 36 years later, he has about 50 people working for him, many having been with him more than 20 years.

With offices in Crystal River and New Port Richey, Bay Area serves more than 30,000 customers.

“I love to repair things with my hands,” Hutchins said. “I don’t do that anymore. What I’ve found over the years — running a business, you have to get to the point where you work on the business and not so much in the business.

“Now I repair things with my mind to make the business better,” he said. “It’s the same challenge, whether it’s a people problem, an advertising problem, or anything else. It’s still troubleshooting. I’m still fixing things, trying to make things work.”

In addition to running a successful business, Hutchins is known as a community champion for local organizations and charities, from kids’ sports teams and the Boys & Girls Clubs to the Key Training Center, plus many behind-the-scenes acts of generosity.

Plus, he keeps an open-door, open-line policy. He said at one point early in his career he thought he was a big shot and started screening his calls. But then he heard someone at a seminar say, “If you have someone screen your calls and you don’t talk to your customers, what message does that send to everybody who works for you?”

“So, anybody who calls and says, ‘I want to talk to the idiot who runs this place,’ I’m going to talk to them,” Hutchins said.

Customers can even call him at home.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the customer,” he said. “It’s about our employees. We have the best people — and they care. They have passion for the business and for the customer.”

Chronicle reporter Nancy Kennedy can be reached at (352) 564-2927 or email at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.