That relentless drive to strengthen the HVAC industry, one idea at a time, is what makes Dave Chatmon this year’s HVAC Legend. 

LENNOX ON AIR: Dave Chatmon (center) with Monte Hehnke of Jerry’s Sheet Metal (left) and Mike Guillen of Hope Heating after recording the first Lennox ON AIR podcast. Courtesy of Dave Chatmon.

A Career He Never Planned 

If you had asked Dave Chatmon early in life what he wanted to do for a living, HVAC wouldn't have been his answer. 

“I was a professional fisherman on Lake Michigan,” he said. “Then my father-in-law, Charlie Swartz — he was a business agent for the local sheet metal union — said if I wanted to marry his daughter, I had to get into a sheet metal union, too.” 

Chatmon wasn’t sold on sheet metal, but HVAC service work seemed like a fit. 

"My father-in-law told me, 'Come into the industry. Be the very best at what you do. Bring your creativity and your drive, and help make this industry better,'" Chatmon said.  

That challenge became more than career advice — it became a mission. Whether working in the field himself, mentoring technicians, developing training programs, or launching industry initiatives, Chatmon consistently looks for ways to leave the trade better than he found it. Today, he describes HVAC as far more than a profession. 

“If you simply open your mind, learn, and apply yourself, be the best you can, this industry will give you so much that you're looking for in life,” he said. “It represents promise: The more you put in, the more you get out. And it represents service — the privilege of using a skill that few people have to bring comfort and safety to others. When you use that skill for good, you see nothing but smiles.” 

Over the next two decades, that advice would evolve into a pattern. See a problem. Build a solution. Share widely. Repeat. 

One Simple Question 

Before joining Lennox and eventually becoming a district manager, Chatmon worked as a contractor, and so many of the things he has worked on have come from problems he experienced firsthand in the field. Rather than working around those challenges, he looked for ways to solve them.  

It started off with a common complaint. Jobs kept getting backed up when his guys were off to training. So he asked a simple question: Why couldn't distributors offer one- or two-day training events that let contractors educate their technicians without shutting down their businesses? 

He was told it wasn’t possible. 

Later, working at Lennox with a new Dealer Advisory Council he’d brought together, it turned out to be very possible after all. That’s how VisionTECH, Lennox’s annual two-day HVAC dealer training and career technical event in Wisconsin Dells, got its start. This year’s event drew 872 contractors, technicians, students, educators, and industry partners for hands-on training, networking, and teambuilding. 

“It took a little bit of sales, little bit of coaching, sometimes, to get people’s buy-in,” he said. But he owned the idea with such a passion — being a dealer and trying to fix this area for dealers — that his enthusiasm was contagious. 

“People wanted to really engage and help, and that's what really took it off from being this an area event to a much, much more special,” he said. 

MENTOR: Dave Chatmon speaks with Corey from Mid-State Tech School at Lennox VisionTECH 2024. Courtesy of Dave Chatmon.

More Than A Donation 

If VisionTECH helped contractors build stronger businesses, Feel The Love helped them strengthen the communities they served.  

During a Dealer Advisory Council meeting, someone asked Chatmon what he wanted the group to accomplish. His answer had little to do with sales. 

"I'd like to give away a new furnace to somebody that's in need," he told them.   

Community service wasn't a new idea. His parents volunteered with Special Olympics, and his father-in-law's company installed a system for Habitat for Humanity every year. 

Six months later, the phone rang. A dealer was helping rebuild the home of a military veteran who had lost both of his legs. They planned to donate labor and asked if Chatmon's idea was still on the table. 

So Lennox donated the equipment, the dealer donated the labor, and the whole thing ended up on TV. The project changed one homeowner’s life, and it gave other Lennox dealers a blueprint. They saw the impact and how much the employees loved using their skills to give back, and wanted to do the same. 

That was year one. The next year, they’d kicked off the Heat Up Wisconsin program. 

“We turned the fuel up,” Chatmon said. “That second year, we did 82 systems.” 

That drive has become one of Chatmon's defining characteristics. Colleague Chad Mathern summed it up in two words: "relentless effort." 

Since its inception in 2009, Feel The Love has supported more than 3,100 families across the U.S. and Canada. Nominations open in May, and during the second week of October, those chosen receive a brand-new Lennox HVAC system, installed by Lennox dealers, all free of charge. 

FROM IDEA TO INSTITUTION: What started as Chatmon's answer to a contractor's scheduling problem has become VisionTECH, Lennox's annual dealer training and career technical event. Courtesy of Dave Chatmon.

Hungry, Honorable, And Humble  

Ask Chatmon what it takes to build the next generation of HVAC leaders, and his answer comes quickly: hungry, honorable, and humble.  

“Twenty-two years in this industry, and I feel like I'm still learning new things every single day,” he said. “It's shocking. One of my mentors told me, ‘If you keep an open mind and a learning mindset, you'll never stop learning, never stop growing.” 

Chatmon’s impact is wide-ranging. He helped launch technician recognition programs. He co-hosts the ON AIR podcast, which has reached thousands of HVAC professionals across North America. He created leadership development meetings that colleagues describe as so valuable that employees from outside his district ask to attend. 

"Dave Chatmon is an HVAC legend because he doesn't just work in the industry — he builds the industry," Smiley wrote. "He builds it through communities served, careers launched, students hired, technicians honored, and conversations started." 

When Chatmon talks about leadership, he points to another problem-solver: Dave Lennox. 

“He was an inventor, and the first furnace was built — a sealed combustion furnace — to save people's lives, because people were dying,” he said. “Somebody came to him with a plan, and he took that plan and created the first furnace. And to me, that's a great example of solving a problem to serve others.” 

To those who nominated Chatmon, that's exactly what his career has represented. 

Ask Chatmon about being named a Legend, however, and he quickly shifts the focus away from himself. 

"I accept this award for everyone in the HVAC trade,” he said. “When I look at this award, I don't see myself — I see you. The teachers, the techs, the companies, the people who show up every day and make this the greatest trade there is."