By Misty Cryer
Century 21 Dunagan Associates has a lot to celebrate in 2025. This year, the business marks 100 years of serving Carlsbad. It is George Dunagan’s 50th year of service in the company, and business ownership is the fourth generation of the family.
Kerri (Dunagan) Fowler, George’s daughter, and Muffy Gonzalez are currently co-owners of the business. Through research, Kerri said she learned that only .5% of family-owned businesses make it to 100 years, and only 3% make it to the fourth generation.
“I’m really proud of the fact that we made it,” she said.
George, Kerri, and Muffy shared some history about the company, which is well-known to the community.
George’s grandfather on his mother’s side is credited with founding the business. “Will Ed Carter bought an insurance agency located at 116 N. Canyon St. in 1925,” said George.
Will Ed came from a family of farmers, and he was also a hay broker, he said. “He died in 1956, and then my dad, Ed Dunagan, took over,” George said.
The only break in serving the business for Ed was when he was away for World War II, Kerri said. “What is so cool about him is that he had great leadership skills; he was a captain in the Army; no amount of education can teach you how to be a good leader. He was really a self-made man,” she said.
Kerri also said Ed was from a family of entrepreneurs who owned a filling station and a grocery store in Carlsbad.
“He knew everyone from every walk of life in Carlsbad; I don’t care about what your economic status was, they would come in and ask for Ed Dunagan and go right into his office. Some of them would throw dice with him; some came in and closed the door because they needed help, and he would help them,” Muffy said. “Ed drove down here every day to work until he was in his 90s,” she said.
In the 60s, the business moved to the current location of Century 21 Dunagan Associates at 212 W. Stevens St., which was originally a house. “This house was my great-grandmother’s house,” George said.
“My grandparents were married in this house,” Kerri said, referring to George’s parents, Ed and June (Carter) Dunagan.
A historical photo shows that the house was once two-story. “I don’t know how old this photograph is; this is whenever cottonwood trees used to line Canal Street,” Kerri said.
“When I was a senior in high school, we took off half of the second floor—in 1967 or 1968—that’s when they did the remodel from the house into the office,” George said.
“My sister, brother, and I grew up next door until 1958. We used to come over here and swing,” George said about the porch swing that still graces the Century 21 Dunagan Associates entrance.
The house where George grew up, 208 W. Stevens St., is the home of the insurance and property management office for Century 21 Dunagan Associates, Kerri said. “I brought in property management. That was my contribution,” she said.
Kerri and Muffy also purchased Montgomery Agency, which was previously a competitor. Kerri was unsure if the agents would stay. “Every one of them stayed,” she said.
“The subdivisions that Will Ed, Ed, and George contributed to are a lot,” Kerri said.
She displayed the conceptual plat of the 640-acre section—previously a farm—that the Carter family developed. “It runs essentially from what is known today as Orchard Lane to Church Street and from C-Hill to Pate Street.”
George named some of the developments he or his family engaged in, which include a couple of buildings downtown, Carter Addition, Pecos Acres Subdivision, the first golf course subdivision around the country club, Northgate Shopping Center, most of the commercial development on Pierce Street, Southshore, Hagerman Acres, Quail Hollow, Riverfront, Copperstone Estates, and the first county subdivision. “It was called Country Acres,” he said.
One of Ed’s big projects was Northgate Shopping Center, Kerri said. “He went to other cities, larger cities—Austin, TX, was one of them—and other places to kind of promote the project and understand what retail was doing in other cities.
“He brought in what was innovative in America at that time, not just what was standard for Carlsbad,” she said about Ed.
“They really cared a lot about the development and growth of Carlsbad,” Kerri said.
“It’s really more than an insurance and real estate company. It was founded by people who really loved Carlsbad and wanted to see economic growth and put a lot of innovative thinking into how it was going to grow. If you look at the way that these subdivisions are designed, it is kind of beautiful,” she said.
George said that, in 1925, Carlsbad had about 2,500 to 3,000 people, and it was mostly an agricultural community. “In the 30s, they discovered the Carlsbad Caverns and the potash mines. At one time, the potash mines employed about 5,000 people. That’s what grew the town from the 1930s to the 1960s. Then WIPP came and the oil and gas development. We’ve been here through all of that,” he said.
“Ed, he knew all those farmers from their gas station and grocery store. So, when I first moved back, I wrote a lot of farm insurance and crop insurance. We’ve got customers that are fourth generation, maybe fifth,” George said, adding, “That’s really an honor when you’ve been able to serve families for that long.
“The other thing that is the crux is the people that work for you,” he said. As he remembers from childhood, he said, “I did what my dad did. I got to know everybody who worked there and became friends with them. When I moved back here, the office manager and partner in the firm was this lady named Francis Prather, and her granddaughter Shea Yturralde works here now in real estate. People helping people—expanding your family and your business family. My dad always said Carlsbad has been good to us; we need to be good to Carlsbad.”
Kerri said, “We have 22 licensed realtors and 14 employees. We couldn’t do what we do without them.”
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