Answering the Call: Marvin Spees
Photo by: John Burns
To find Marvin Spees’ office at Capital City Oil, you have to weave through a collection of “Americana.” Neon signs, pinball machines, a skee ball game, not to mention the classic cars (mostly Corvettes) that beckon you to explore. The collection includes a 1956 Corvette, a 1965 Corvette, a 2016 Corvette, a 1930 Model A tank wagon and a 1948 Ford Woodie.
“I always leave one at home to drive on nice days,” Marvin said.
The other permanent office fixture is Caymus, Marvin’s 5-year-old King Charles Cavalier, who is obviously in charge.
The owner of Capital City Oil looks back on his career, the business and his personal life with a smile because he has no regrets.
Marvin’s father, Glen Spees and business partner, Frank Smith opened Capital City Oil in 1960 as a distributor for Cities Service. Many of Marvin’s earliest memories are those as a 4 or 5-year-old riding around town with his father to meet customers.
“He always said he was going out ‘collecting,’” Marvin said of his father. “But later it dawned on me that those visits were really his chance to get out and talk with people; they were his social life.”
Growing up in a family business meant Marvin spent more time there than at home. From doing odd jobs and cleaning chores to pumping gas and changing tires at the station as he got older, Marvin learned the business from the inside out and the bottom up. However, he had no plans for taking over the business one day.
CALLED TO SERVE
His first passion was ministry. During a two-year break between high school and college, Marvin found himself leading a Campus Life club at Jardine. While everyone was passionate about the work, he soon discovered that they weren’t so ardent about the business aspects.
“I felt like I was being called to help the ministry from a business perspective,” Marvin said. “There were so many areas where an emphasis on better business practices would allow them to grow.”
With that ideal in mind, he headed to John Brown University in Arkansas in pursuit of a business degree. Four years later, he graduated with more than a degree; he had found the love of his life, his wife, Debbie. Marvin dove back into the youth ministry, working at the regional office for a 10-state region for the next three years, helping to coordinate youth activities and trips.
“I was in charge of lining up snow skiing trips, booking hotels, facilitating meetings, reserving ski equipment. It was a lot of work, but I got to ski 40 days a year,” Marvin said. That all changed with a phone call in 1983.
CALLED BACK HOME
His father had suffered a massive heart attack and could no longer be as involved in the business as was needed to keep it going. He asked for Marvin’s help, and because family comes first, Marvin dropped everything to come back and help run the company.
Two years later, on Jan. 1, 1985, Marvin bought the company outright.
“All they had at the time was one tank wagon and five employees,” Marvin said. “We handled a million gallons of fuel.”
Today, the company has more than 35 trucks, and 40 employees and distributes more than 40 million gallons of fuel each year.
Marvin says the biggest challenge when he took over the business was the lack of capital; however, he didn’t really know how much of a challenge it was at the time. What he did know was an opportunity when he saw it.
OPPORTUNITY CALLS
While everyone else was jumping into the convenience store craze, Marvin stayed true to the original commercial business vision. He began purchasing tank wagons from those new convenience store owners who wanted to shift their focus.
“I never regretted that decision to stay out of retail,” Marvin said. “We made 15 acquisitions in a really short period of time, which helped take the company to the next level.”
Capital City Oil also added another product line to its services in 1998: propane.
“Everyone said we couldn’t start a propane business from scratch with no existing equipment or customers,” Marvin said. “But we did it anyway.”
They soon had six propane trucks running routes all over northeast Kansas. While the propane business was successful, Marvin discovered it got him a little too close to the retail side of the business he tried to avoid.
“The majority of our propane customers were fantastic,” Marvin said. “But for the other 3 percent, it wasn’t about quality, safety or customer service. It was only about price. Fighting that battle gets tiresome after a while.”
Wanting to shift the focus back to the fuel business, he sold the propane business in May 2008.
“I have never regretted that decision one minute either,” Marvin said.
CALLED FOR HELP
Over the years, Marvin says, the driving force behind the company’s growth has been its customer service.
“We earned our reputation for excellent customer service by being on-call to refuel trains coming through town,” Marvin said. “But our 24-hour service has been called upon for many other reasons as well.”
One of those notable times was when the Kansas Avenue Lofts caught fire two years ago. Capital City Oil refueled the fire trucks in the moment to keep them operational and able to fight the fire.
Another emergency call came from the Mars Chocolate Factory. Chocolate sitting in refrigerator trailers in the factory parking lot was in danger of melting if those coolers stopped running. Capital City Oil answered the call.
“We go out there every day to fuel those trailers,” Marvin said. “We have one simple directive, ‘Whatever you do, just don’t let the chocolate melt!”’
CALLED TO GIVE BACK
Looking back with the knowledge he has accumulated through lived experiences, Marvin wishes he could have given his 25-year-old self some advice that he hopes maybe another aspiring entrepreneur will take to heart.
“Spend more time mentoring the people you work with,” Marvin said. “The products and the processes will take care of themselves if the people are taken care of. It goes back to one of my favorite books—Feed Your Eagles. Recognize the people around you who are eagles and take care of them. You have to be willing to shoot the turkeys so the eagles can thrive.”
Marvin is also on a mission to give back locally through the “Fueling Hope” charitable fund set up by Capital City Oil and Fleet Fuels with the goal of donating primarily to faith-based organizations, such as the Topeka Rescue Mission, SENT Topeka and House of Hope Kansas City.
“We’ve been blessed. We want to share some of that blessing in the communities where we do business,” Marvin said.
THE FUTURE CALLS
Marvin sees a bright future ahead both professionally and personally. With both of his children working in the business, he hopes to keep the legacy going long after he has retired. Marvin and his nephew also started a similar business in Kansas City. They now have 40 trucks and service Olpe, El Dorado, Pittsburgh, Independence, Coffeyville, Tulsa and Springdale, Arkansas.
But Marvin is most excited about a new job title he added to his resume in December 2020: grandpa.
“It’s a great gig,” Marvin said.
As for his bucket list, once again, Marvin has no regrets.
“I have pretty much done everything on that list,” Marvin said. “Except for one thing. Someday, I plan to take the old Ford Woodie out and drive her across the entire Old Route 66.”
