DUNKERTON - Carroll Hauptly, a man who helped shape Dunkerton, died in Cedar Falls on Friday.

Hauptly, 84, was the founder of Hauptly Construction and Equipment. He built his business in Dunkerton, and later he tried to give back to the community that gave him his start, Hauptly's son, Jim Hauptly, said.

"He felt that he owed the community," Jim said. "He did everything he could to give back."

Some of his gifts are quantifiable.

Hauptly gave the Dunkerton Community School District $10,000 in 1976 to help pay for a wooden floor in the school gymnasium. He gave $35,000 to the fire department toward the purchases of an ambulance and a fire truck. In 2004, he pledged $25,000 for a new public library. Later that year, after the Dunkerton boys basketball team won the state 1A championship, Hauptly paid for the team jerseys so the players could keep them after their memorable season.

Some of Hauptly's contributions may never be known; he made many of them anonymously, Jim said.

"He was a man who knew where he was going after he died," Jim said. "As far as I'm concerned, that's the only thing that's important."

Hauptly learned woodworking skills while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps. He did some cabinetry work in Dunkerton while he worked at John Deere and Co. in Waterloo. Labor disputes led Hauptly to start his own company in 1954. Jim said community members gave his father work when he needed it and paid his father upfront to help him make ends meet.

Later, Hauptly's business took off as he began building grain elevators and pole buildings.

Hauptly's son, Jon Hauptly, who now runs Hauptly Construction Inc., which was formed from his father's company, said his father routinely put in 18-hour days to build the business. He instilled a similar work ethic in his children by having them involved in company projects, Jon said.

"I got picked up from kindergarten in a dump truck," Jon said.

Jon and Jim are two of five children Hauptly had with his wife, Ilene, who died in 1962. Hauptly later married Alice "Sal" Bartholomew, a widower with five children of her own.

Hauptly also established a subdivision in Dunkerton, reshaping the community without public help or borrowing from future tax revenue, Jon said.

"Back then they didn't have (tax increment financing) and stuff like that," Jon said. "He paid for it."

Some of Hauptly's projects met with resistance from people who saw them as plans to profit from the community, Jim said.

"There's always that few that like to wreck things," he said.

Jon summed up his father's motivation: "He really loved Dunkerton," he said. "Everything he did, he did for that town."