When Fee Stubblefield returned from accepting the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Mountain West Award, he laughed about one thing.
"I wasn't prepared to win."
Like many founders, his instinct wasn't to think about an acceptance speech. It was to get back to work. Looking back, he joked that he wished he'd thanked his wife Julie from the stage. He also wished he'd said something else.
That this recognition was never really about him.
A few days later, reflecting on the experience, Fee smiled and said, "Maybe, in our case, they should call it the Entrepreneur of the 30th Year."
Because that's what this recognition represents.
Not one great idea.
Not one successful company.
Thirty years of believing senior living could and should be fundamentally different.
It started with a promise to his grandmother.
That promise became the foundation for a company built around belonging, purpose and human connection. It challenged long held assumptions about what senior living should be, how caregivers should be supported, how quality should be measured, and what older adults and their families should expect from the profession.
Over the past three decades, The Springs Living has grown steadily, but growth has never been the goal.
The goal has always been to fulfill a promise.
That philosophy has shaped every major decision along the way, from investing in caregivers and workforce stability, to building for the long term rather than building to sell, to measuring success by the quality of people's experiences rather than the number of communities on a map.
Fee often says that there are businesses that hide behind a mission, and there are missions that use strong business principles to fulfill their promises.
That distinction has guided The Springs Living for 30 years.
For Fee, that's why this award matters.
Not because it recognizes one entrepreneur.
Because it shines a light on a profession that deserves greater visibility. It helps bring greater attention to the opportunities and challenges facing older adults, inspires more people to see senior living as a meaningful profession, and encourages the next generation of leaders to help shape its future.
He also hopes it recognizes the people who made it possible.
"Every person that's a part of The Springs Living is Entrepreneur of the Year because we're changing the industry."
That's why this award belongs just as much to the caregivers working overnight, the dining teams greeting residents by name, and every team member who fulfills that promise every day as it does to the founder who accepted it.
Thirty years later, the promise remains the same.
Families taking care of families.
