A Part of His Life
When Vern Wolfe worked in an ordinance supply warehouse in the Army, he did not envision spending his next 60 years handing out parts.
Yet after serving two years in Anchorage, Alaska, during the late 1940s, that is the path he chose.
He now is the parts manager for the Diehl Automotive Group dealerships on Route 8 south of Butler.
Wolfe started out with a choice: "My brother and I both applied at Armco, and I applied at Keck. Armco called both of us, Keck called me."
While his younger brother took a job at Armco, Wolfe took a job in the parts department at the former Keck Chrysler Plymouth in Butler.
"He's been retired 15 years, and here I still am," Wolfe said.
But at 80 years old, the Butler native looks no worse for the wear.
Peering from behind his glasses and under salt-and-pepper hair, he looks more like a baby boomer retiree than a man who has been in the auto parts business for 60 years.
"I enjoy talking to people and helping them. I guess that's why I like the parts business," Wolfe said.
He began work at Universal Motor Sales, which later became Keck, in 1948, serving as parts manager from 1957 until the dealership closed in 2003.
When Keck shipped its inventory to Diehl, Wolfe followed.
He now clocks in at 6 a.m. and out at 1 p.m. five days a week. Wolfe checks in inventory shipments and helps customers find the items they need.
"When I first started in the business, I didn't even have to use a reference book (to find parts). Of course, cars were simpler then, too," Wolfe said.
In the late 1990s, dealerships began to use computerized inventory instead of numerous, bulky reference books for parts.
Asked which auto part is most prone to failure, Wolfe said electronics.However, Wolfe said newer vehicles are well-built and less prone to breakdown than many of the vehicles he has seen in the past six decades.But sometimes the faultiest parts of a vehicle are the owner themselves."When people call and say they have a part, but they don't know what it is and try to describe it to you, that's the worst case scenario," Wolfe said.For faster, more accurate results, he advises anyone looking for parts to have the vehicle identification number when calling for information.Though he used to work on his own vehicles, Wolfe said he now entrusts the work to a friend.He also quit smoking long ago, but he has no plans to give up his after-work beer or the work itself anytime soon."My youngest son is a doctor and he's said, 'Quit working, I'll take care of you.' But I cannot just sit around," Wolfe said.While a bad knee prevents him from enjoying golf and bowling anymore, Wolfe still walks two miles on a treadmill and sweats out 150 sit-ups every day.He and his wife of 45 years have four sons, and Wolfe has one daughter from a previous marriage as well as five grandchildren.He said during his time in the Army, men disliked Alaska so much that they would volunteer to go to Korea to escape.But Wolfe was not one of them. He stayed behind the counter, giving supplies to civilians and military personnel alike."Probably when I die, I'll be working," Wolfe said, "right there," pointing to the counter he has manned, at one location or another, since gas was 11 cents a gallon and cigarettes were 13 cents per pack.
