Biography:
Darshan Dhaliwal was born and raised in Rakhra village,
near Patiala, Punjab. He was the eldest son of a successful
farmer. The farm was successful, and he and his two
younger brothers accepted the responsibilities that
came with the family business. He attended Government
Rapduman College in Nabha and after class, he came
home and help his father in farming. "Farming
is a hard life anyplace," Dhaliwal says.
At the age of 21, Dhaliwal met a Peace Corps volunteer
who spoke of American customs that seemed unbelievably
refreshing: moving out of the house at 18, dating
who you like, going out to parties. He soon applied
for admission to the United States, packed a suitcase
and left with "a few bucks" in his pocket.
He made his way to North Dakota and then took a bus
trip that made a stop in Milwaukee. Someone he knew
gave him a tour and Dhaliwal decided he was in "God's
country." He felt comfortable knowing there were
Indian grocery stores, there was a Sikh house of worship,
there were even places to rent Indian movies. The
people were friendly, the nearby rural areas beautiful.
"In North Dakota, I was the only Indian. Over
here, I could talk my own language," Dhaliwal
says. "I liked it and I just stayed down."
In 1974, Dhaliwal met Debra, a third-generation Wisconsinite
from Little Chute. With roots in Holland, Debra was
like no one he could have met or married in India.
They fell in love and married two years later.
Dhaliwal worked odd jobs - delivering pizzas, operating
a bakery fryer - as he and Debra, a nurse at a family
clinic, saved their money. Dhaliwal still wasn't sure
what type of business to go into, but he knew he wanted
to be in charge. He didn't want to answer to anyone.
A retired associate dean at Marquette University,
Prem Sharma, recalls getting to know Dhaliwal about
that time. Dhaliwal had been working for an hourly
wage at a brewery, and had been offered a salaried
position. He asked Sharma whether to take it or strike
out on his own.Sharma thought Dhaliwal would do well
independently. "He impressed me as a young entrepreneurial
type of individual and I felt that he would do well,"
Sharma says.
In 1977, Dhaliwal leased a gas station at
N. 35th St. and W. Garfield Ave. for $300 a month.
He taught himself to change oil and do other simple
mechanical procedures, then began manning the station
by himself. He would work on a car, run out to pump
gas, run back to work on the car, and on and on, back
and forth, for hours.
It was also during this time that he and his wife
had their first child, a son, Jespal. During his 16-
or 17-hour workdays, Dhaliwal sometimes would hold
"Jessie" in one hand and pump gas with the
other."I enjoyed hard work," he says. "I
learned one thing - that hard work always pays."
In 1979, Dhaliwal had saved $30,000, enough
to buy his first gas station at N. 17th St. and W.
North Ave. In his native language, when a person goes
to see somebody very important, they say they are
going to see their "Darshan." Dhaliwal named
his station: Darshan's Gas.
Dhaliwal sold the station the same year and bought
two others. The next year he bought a half-dozen more.
For the next six years, he bought two gas stations
a year.
In 1986, he bought 50 stations spread across Illinois,
Indiana and Michigan from Chevron. Today, Dhaliwal
won't say how many stations his privately held company
owns, but he acknowledges he has at least 50 each
in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas,
Missouri and Colorado.
Dhaliwal said, "God has been good to me and I'm
thankful". Mr. Dhaliwal is a devoted husband
to his lovely wife Debra, and a tender loving father
to his three daughters and three sons, whom he and
Debra are raising under Sikh tradition.
