White Springs Memories: Dewayne Kirby

Dewayne Kirby thinks of Nutrien’s White Springs, Florida facility as more than a job; it’s a home. And the people who work there are more than friends; they’re family – in some cases, literally.

Dewayne has been a part of the team at White Springs since 1979 and over the past 46 years he’s filled a number of roles and worked with a lot of people, including his eight brothers who all worked at the facility.

“My oldest brother, Boots, was the first one,” recalls Dewayne. “He was 23 years older than me and worked as a heavy equipment operator. I went a different route. I'm in electrical and I had four brothers that were in electrical at White Springs.”

Growing up in Live Oak, Florida, the White Springs operation became a second home for the Kirby boys. If you’re filling out the starting nine on your baseball scorecard, the lineup reads: Boots, Tebo, Robert, Billy, Ronnie, Ken, Donald, Dewayne and John. John still works at White Springs and, in keeping with family tradition, Dewayne’s son, Steven, also spent four years working at the facility. 

“About the whole family worked out here,” says Dewayne. “Now there's only two of us working (at White Springs)– me and my younger brother, John. I grew up around here and I've always thought about just staying right where I'm at. I didn't want to leave my hometown. I’ve got a family and that's where we stayed, in Live Oak, Florida.”

Even through ownership changes before becoming a cornerstone of Nutrien’s phosphate operations in 2018, the facility has been a constant in the community over the past six decades, providing opportunities and support throughout the Suwanee Valley.

"We got a lot of people out of White Springs, Jasper, Lake City, Georgia…it’s big,” says Dewayne. “People that hire on out here, most of them stay quite a while.”

For Dewayne, that has meant almost five decades of steady work and new challenges as he moved from his initial role as a general laborer to working on mine pumps, float gangs and electrical lines. Today,heis a Leaderman on a line crew that includes long-time colleagues Wayne Rice, John Fullbright and Adam DeRocco.

Even though Dewayne turns 66 in 2025, he intends to carry on as part of the White Springs family.

“John and I, we've worked together for about 20 years; Wayne, he's worked with me since he joined the linecrew in 2016; and Adam was hired on about five years ago,” says Dewayne.“It's like one big happy family out here. You spend more time with these people than you do your regular family. I enjoy and love every one of them that I work with. If you can't have fun on your job, it is a boring day. I'm very blessed.”