Ricky Fine
After starting two of his own businesses, Dublin graduate Ricky Fine now travels the country as an insurance adjuster, helping people start to rebuild after disasters such as hurricanes or fires.
Fine graduated from Dublin High School in 1983, and married his high school sweetheart Chris Salyer. “We went to school from day one together,” Fine said. “I told her in first grade that I was going to marry her.”
The Fines decided to stay in Dublin and Fine started working full time at his family’s dairy. “I was just doing whatever had to be done around the farm,” he said.
In 1990, Fine decided to go into business for himself as a hoof trimmer for dairies around the state. “I saw a need and a way to make more money,” he said.
He worked all over Texas, and most of his clients found him by word of mouth. But Fine had a wife and child at home, and after a while the constant traveling began to wear on him. He began looking for a way to spend more time at home in Dublin with his family.
After nine years of working as a trimmer, Fine bought a lot in Dublin and he and a friend built Ready Go Service Center. Fine enjoyed staying in town and being a part of the community. “I liked helping people when they needed help, and it was good money,” he said.
In 2004, after he’d had the service center for five years, Fine was talking to one of his friends who worked as an insurance adjuster. “My wife and I talked to him and figured it was something we wanted to try,” he said.
So they started working on contract as insurance adjusters, balancing this new job with running Ready Go. Finally, in 2007, Fine sold the service center and he and his wife started adjusting full time.
The Fines work for themselves, and contract with different insurance companies who insure people’s properties in case of natural disasters. “We do independent adjusting for catastrophic events,” he said. “It’s strictly feet on the ground. We had to get back on the road, but our daughter was grown and it was okay. I don’t mind going and my wife goes with me.”
The Fines have traveled all around the country. “We’ve been to Florida and Texas for big hurricanes, and we’ve worked tornadoes in Wisconsin and a monster hailstorm in Minnesota,” he said. “We’ve been in Maine and Washington state and just about everywhere in between.”
Fine likes the work. “I enjoy helping people when they’re in trouble,” he said. “They’ve had a catastrophic loss and have no idea what to do now, and I get to come in there and I’m able to walk them through what’s got to be done to get their property back to where it was before the event. That way they’ve got some instruction, and they usually feel better after that.”
Fine plans to keep on working in insurance until he retires. “I’ll keep adjusting till I can’t climb a roof no more,” he said.
When Fine has free time, he enjoys playing golf, hunting, and spending time with his grandchildren. The Fines have one daughter, Shayla Fine Dempsey, and two grandsons, ages 2 and 4. The Fines decided to move to the Granbury area in 2017 to be closer to Shayla and her sons, and bought a house with a pool out in De Cordova.
“Both of [the grandsons] are about three-quarters fish, so as soon as it warms up enough to where we can stand the water we swim in our swimming pool nearly every day,” he said.
Fine’s advice to Dublin graduates is to trust in their own abilities. “Keep your head up, and if people say you can’t do it, to heck with them,” he said. “Work your butt off and you can do it.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.