Last night, in a casual conversation with law-enforcement, who knew the guy personally (he's still alive, but 96 years old), he alleged that he was a nasty old grouch who was curtly rude to most who approached him.
If he didn't like the looks of someone, that someone wasn't going to get a car from him.
And the cop said that was about two-thirds, three-quarters, of the people who tried.
Okay, so perhaps he wasn't Mr. Sunshine.....but on the other hand, he sold thousands of Chevrolets 1946-1996, and even without this auction, he's going to die worth into eight figures.....having arisen from poor dirt-farmer boy to a "20/52" after the second world war (veterans were paid twenty bucks a week for a full year after discharge).
I for one think he did rather well, for allegedly being a curmudgeon.
I hadn't paid attention before, but apparently his operation was pretty tiny; it was just himself, his wife answering the telephone and filing the files, and a mechanic.
Pierce has a little over 1,600 people, which in this area means the urban mass can support two or three automotive dealerships. Most small-town dealerships in this area have the owner, three or four salesmen, and three or four mechanics, a secretary, and a file clerk. Janitorial work's contracted out, and the mechanics clean the interiors of used cars to make them saleable.
So this was a pretty little itty-bitty operation.
The mechanic lived out on the farm where the used vehicles were kept, but he died about the time the owner called it quits, back in 1996. That's when most of the vandalism and theft started; during the Clinton adminisration, which itself was not squeamish about vandalizing and stealing.