You start work for the day. You greet your boss, your colleagues. You get down to the business of supporting healthcare providers through your particular role — manufacturing products, filling or delivering orders, managing processes, assisting customers or simply helping the company run smoothly.

You … say hi to your dad?

Just as Medline has several moms who work at the same facilities as their grown kids, there also are quite a few examples around the U.S. of fathers and sons and fathers and daughters based in the same buildings or regions.

Here are four Medline family pairs who show the apple often doesn’t fall far from the tree:

Fred and Hannah Davis

Dubuque, Iowa

When he began fielding calls at Medline’s customer service center in Dubuque in 2021, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to lift, Fred Davis didn’t require a full Medline education to get into the swing of things. He’d been with the company once before, from 2003 to 2009. This was his return to a role he’d enjoyed tremendously before leaving for another opportunity.

But there was something notably different this time: His daughter, Ruby Ryan, was a customer service representative in the same room, sitting just one aisle over, after starting with Medline 2½ years earlier.

A year later, Fred’s younger daughter, Hannah Davis, came onboard as well. She’d been 5 or 6 when Fred began first Medline stint. Now an adult, she found herself working within sight of her father and sister after hearing wonderful things about the company for almost as far back as she could remember.

“It was mainly just the way they spoke about Medline and how good the community was,” Hannah said. “I was trying to find a secure job and career. It had worked for my dad and my sister. I felt like it could work for me, too.”

Four years later, that’s absolutely the case. Hannah now has a role as a physician service manager, assisting callers from doctor’s offices. And although Ruby left Medline earlier this year to be a stay-at-home mom, Fred remains, helping customers in non-acute care settings such as nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities. When in the office, he and Hannah are just a short walk from each other.

“It’s a delicate balance,” Fred said. “But I make sure I get over there once every day and hug her or kiss her on the forehead. It’s a different dynamic than you’d normally have at work because we’re such a close family.”

They don’t take breaks together. Fred says he gives Hannah space to “do her own thing.”

But their colleagues know they’re father and daughter and find it endearing.

“It took some people a little bit to realize he was my dad, even though we look like each other,” Hannah said. “Now it’s a funny little joke sometimes. They’ll say to me, ‘Hey, Hannah, your dad’s coming.’”

Kenny and Devon Sabin

Perryville, Md.

Father and son started within days of each other at Medline’s distribution center in Perryville in January 2025. What was it, exactly, that caught their eye?

“What caught my eye,” Kenny Sabin said, laughing, “was that we had been working in traffic control on the highway at nighttime, which was dangerous. You know how lanes are taken up so workers can actually work on the highway? That was our job. I ran the crash truck, which protected Devon while he was putting out the barrels and the cones.

“The lifestyle was just too much. And I wanted stability somewhere I could work year-round without having to worry about being out in the rain or not working because of the weather.”

After eight months at Medline, Devon left in September, recruited back to the highway.

“It was the worst mistake of my life,” he said.

Dad was worried.

“It wasn’t sitting right with me every night, knowing that he was out on the highway and I wasn’t there to help protect him,” Kenny said. “Somebody else was out there doing that instead. I told him, ‘You could be in the warehouse right now.’”

Devon reapplied with Medline and was soon back at the Perryville facility, where he and Kenny are now warehouse operators doing similar work — Kenny in receiving and Devon on the receiving dock. Living 45 minutes apart, they’re able to see each other more through work than they otherwise would. When they’re not on the clock, they often talk shop, comparing notes and reviewing how their days went.

“Because I stayed during Devon’s time away, I’ve tried to give him some pointers on different things — ways to better yourself in this job,” Kenny said. “But he’s got a good grasp on it.”

David and Rudy Pena

Tracy, Calif.

Rudy Pena started with Medline in 2009 at age 21, picking full-case orders at a distribution center in San Bernardino outside Los Angeles. Four years ago, as senior operations manager at the company’s distribution center in Tracy, east of the Bay Area, he floated the possibility of his father becoming part of Medline’s MedTrans delivery team.

David Pena, a career truck driver, declined at the time but later reconsidered. This past January, he relocated with his wife from Jurupa Valley, 380 miles south near L.A.

Father and son were now working together — sort of. Because their jobs were so different, they usually only saw each other in passing when David was returning from a route.

Lately, those moments are on hold. The fire that destroyed the Tracy facility on June 11 meant big, sudden changes for the Penas as they and hundreds of other employees took on different roles and assignments to help Medline continue getting medical-surgical supplies to impacted customers across the region.

“My team has been doing quite a few things to help support the operation,” said Rudy, who has been working out of the distribution center in Lathrop, not far from Tracy. “This includes coordinating volunteer support to travel to other locations across the West Coast, assisting with increased volume demands, onboarding and scheduling new team members throughout the week and finding new ways to approach our day-to-day operations. It’s an adjustment. It has required us to be flexible and think differently. However, the level and speed of the support we’ve received from Medline has been incredible.”

David’s services are in demand much farther south. Since shortly after the fire, he has been running truckloads of supplies from Medline’s distribution center in Rialto — a stone’s throw from his old home in Jurupa Valley — to California’s Central Valley.

“It’s always hard to be away from home, but I’m glad to be able to help wherever I’m needed,” David said. “And I know everything will be back to normal soon.”

Working nearly every day on conflicting schedules, he and Rudy haven’t spoken much in recent weeks, but they’ve stayed connected through text check-ins. David knows his son is still doing what he does best: leading others while navigating challenges both large and small.

“Everybody I’ve met who knows Rudy has nothing but good things to say about him,” David said. “I’m very proud of what he’s done with his life.”

Mike and Preston Standerfer

South Texas

After an astonishing 35 years at Medline, acute care sales representative Mike Standerfer will hang it up at the end of July, just after his 60th birthday. But before heading off for the pleasures of retirement, he has a parting gift for the customers he has served faithfully all these years: another Standerfer.

Son Preston, an eight-year Medline veteran himself, will take over Mike’s customer accounts — a collection of hospitals, many of them rural, that are speckled over the southern tail of Texas from greater San Antonio to the Mexican border.

Having worked as an acute care sales rep in San Francisco the last three years, Preston wanted to return home to Texas, where he grew up surrounded by Medline talk and Medline products because of his dad. Mike wanted continuity for his customers. Win-win.

“When I was a manager for 16 years, I often found myself replacing a tenured rep who left the company with somebody green who didn’t yet know Medline and all the ins and outs of how to get things done,” Mike said. “Preston had done a phenomenal job in California and doesn’t have to go through that learning curve. He’s already done all this.

“I proposed that we spend about four months together transitioning him into the territory. That way the customers are taken care of. They don’t feel a bump in the road.”

As Mike has reintroduced Preston to his customers — some of whom remember Preston from when he was a young boy — father and son have spent countless hours together on the long drives between hospitals, fielding calls and talking business but also just catching up on life and learning more about each other.

“It’s been awesome,” Preston said. “We’ve worked for the same company for so long, but I never saw us having an opportunity to actually work together. It’s been a really neat experience that I didn’t ever see occurring.”

They butt heads only occasionally.

“We’re both very headstrong,” Preston said, chuckling. “I take after him a lot. So we’ve had our fun little discussions: ‘Hey, if we’re gonna handle it this way, don’t step on my toes.’”

Customers have thanked them for setting up such a helpful handoff.

“They’ve realized that Medline did something special for them,” said Mike, a farmer’s son who always has felt a close connection with his most rural contacts. “It’s just been a blessing for these customer relationships to continue like this. Preston has already said to me, ‘These are some of my favorite people.’”