Laura Olinger is the new owner following her father’s retirement

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Laura Olinger and her dad David Bentley stand next to a Kubota backhoe on the lot at Bentley Brothers in Albion, the business she has taken over from David after he decided to retire.

ALBION – A family business started in 1925 will continue in Albion under a fourth generation of leadership.

David Bentley of Kendall announced earlier this year he was going to scale back his involvement in Bentley Brothers and turn the reins over to his daughter Laura Olinger.

Bentley Brothers was started in Barre Center by David’s grandfather Allen Bentley selling Cletrac machines for use on the muck. His sons Gerald (David’s father) and Walter (David’s uncle) came back from the war and started working there in the mid 1940s.

David Bentley and his daughter Laura Olinger chat in her office at Bentley Brothers in Albion, where she has taken over the business started by David’s grandfather in 1925.

Allen died in 1951 and the boys continued to run the business through the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were joined by Dave, his brother Doug and sister Donna. After Donna left in the late 1980s, Doug and David took over, with David as manager and Doug as mechanic.

David had graduated from high school in 1974 and then worked part time at the business while attending Alfred State College. After graduating from there, he started full time at Bentley’s.

The business evolved during the years, from selling Cletrac, which was bought out by Oliver, then Oliver was bought by White and White was bought by Agco.

In 1980, David started selling Kubota, a company in Japan which began making farm equipment in 1972. In 1991 he moved the business from Barre Center to Route 31 west of Albion. In 2009, he purchased the Kubota dealership near Brockport.

Doug retired two years ago, and David, who recently turned 64, decided it was time to step back and let Laura run the business.

“I’ve been at this business 45 years,” Dave said.

He will continue for now to spend two and one-half days a week at Bentley’s.

Laura is joined by Brockport’s manager Darrell Morgan, who is buying into the business.

David has a son Kevin, who worked at the business growing up, but after college he wanted to become a state trooper.

David loves boating and hopes to spend more time on his cabin cruiser. He will miss taking care of the people, he said.

“Many customers have become friends,” David said.

Laura said the staff at Bentley Brothers has doubled in the past five years.

“Our goal is to always keep growing and to have what people want,” she said.

Laura has taken over at a challenging time, with the Covid-19 pandemic closing businesses, and having difficulty getting parts and equipment. In spite of that, she said business has been good. She thinks many people who couldn’t spend their money going on vacation are spending it on equipment and things for their homes.

Like her grandfather and uncle, Gerald and Walter, Laura firmly believes in being involved in the community. She recently joined the board of United Way of Orleans County. She also has joined many of her employees, helping at food distributions during the pandemic.

“I’m very fortunate to have a great family, although I work my tail off,” she said.

Three years ago, she married John Olinger, the Ridgeway highway superintendent, and they have bought the Cottages at Oak Orchard and marina at the Bridges in Carlton.

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Fruit grower was key leader for many local organizations

Photo by Tom Rivers; Bruce Krenning accepts an award for Lifetime Achievement in September 2014 from the Orleans County Chamber of Commerce.

ALBION – The Albion Board of Education on Monday began its meeting by observing a moment of silence for Bruce Krenning, who served on the board from 1990 to 1995, with four of those years as board president.

Kathy Harling, the current BOE president, said Krenning left a legacy of community service. He was “a lifelong advocate for agriculture, education and cultural issues,” Harling said.

Krenning, 76, passed away on Aug. 24. He was fruit grower and hog farmer in Knowlesville. He began his public service at age 30, when he joined the Lyndonville Board of Education.

He moved from Lyndonville, where he was an orchard manager, to Knowlesville to start his own farm. Krenning Orchards was decimated by a hail storm on Labor Day in 1998. Krenning was forced to go out of business.

But he remained a strong leader for agriculture, and was elected vice president of the New York Farm Bureau, an organization with more than 30,000 members.

Locally, he was chairman of the board for Orleans Community Health, seeing the organization through some difficult financial challenges. He also served on the board for the Orleans Renaissance Group, which started the restoration of Bent’s Hall in Medina and continues to run a farmers’ market and welcome musicians to the community, including renown tenor Ronan Tynan.

The Orleans County Chamber of Commerce in 2014 honored Krenning with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his many years as a community leader.

Krenning, during an interview with the Orleans Hub six years ago, said he struggled with self worth after the Labor Day storm and the loss of his business.

“I thought after the hail storm that life was over and nobody would want me,” Krenning said. “But that’s not true. I’ve had opportunities with great boards.”

Many of the local organizations reached out to him, wanting his wisdom and ability to build consensus. He was also battle-tested and didn’t shrink from a challenge. Those boards would often they pick him to serve as their leader.

Krenning found a new career as an insurance agent with the Southcott Agency. (When he was VP with Farm Bureau, he helped to get crop insurance approved at the federal level for fruit and vegetable farms.)

“I’ve been fortunate that people trusted me and with that trust I can build relationships and with those relationships you can get things done,” Krenning told the Orleans Hub in September 2014.

He and his wife of 54 years, Diane, have four grown children and 14 grandchildren. Their son Adam was the agriculture teacher and FFA advisor for Albion Central School. He is now the school’s athletic director and varsity football coach.

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Photos by Tom Rivers: Dee Robinson, a reference librarian at Hoag Library in Albion, meets with Albion teacher Tim Archer for a YouTube video on some important local artifacts at the library, including a letter from George Washington, a sword from Civil War and a brick with the name “Newport.” That was Albion’s name before it was Albion.

ALBION – Tim Archer, an Albion Middle School service learning teacher, likes to take groups of students on field trips in the community each year.

They stop at historic sites, such as the Courthouse Square and Civil War Memorial (Mount Albion Tower) at Mount Albion Cemetery. They visit with historians to learn about local history and other interesting artifacts.

But there won’t be any field trips to start this school year, or guest speakers to classrooms.

Archer still wants his sixth- and seventh-grade students to feel a deeper connection to the community, learning about its history and some notable leaders and characters from the past.

He decided to bring the field trips to the class. He plans to visit many of the sites that would normally be on the outings, and make videos of the locations with short clips from historians and other speakers.

Tuesday was the first stop. Archer met with Dee Robinson, the reference librarian at Hoag Library and a long-time Gaines town historian. Robinson has been the caretaker of the archive room at the library.

She often will host Archer’s students on field trips. On Tuesday, she made a video on the library’s YouTube channel, showing some of the interesting artifacts in the collection.

Archer will share the video in the his classes, and students will need to answer questions from the presentation.

The two highlighted maps from Orleans County in 1852 and the village in 1857. In the county, map, there is no Town of Albion. At that time, the Town of Albion was part of Barre. The village, however, was Albion.

Albion, however, almost wasn’t “Albion.” The village officials initially were pushing to name the community “Newport.” Robinson has a brick with the Newport name. But state officials rejected that name because the U.S. Postal Service didn’t want two places with the same name in the state. There was already a Newport.

Robinson isn’t sure which building or site the Newport brick is from. The state government nixed the idea of naming Albion “Newport” because there was already a Newport in Herkimer County and the U.S. Postal Service balked at having two in the state.

Albion was also derisively referred to as “Mudport” by many people in Gaines. The village streets tended to get muddy, especially down the hill on Main Street near Bank Street, before the Erie Canal.

Robinson, in her YouTube talk, also showed a sword given to Albion man as he was departing to fight in the Civil War in 1862.  The sword was presented to George Hutchinson by the local Masonic Lodge.

Robinson also discussed Grace Bedell, an Albion girl who wrote to Lincoln during the presidential campaign of 1860. She suggested that he grow whiskers “because his face was so scrawny,” Robinson said.

Bedell thought a beard would increase his chances for election. Lincoln took her advice and won. Bedell wrote that letter when she briefly lived in Westfield. Lincoln would meet her on the train in Westfield when he headed to Washington, D.C.

This book by Fred Trump in 1977 highlights Grace Bedell, a girl from Albion who urged Abraham Lincoln to grow a beard in 1860, when he was running for president.

Robinson also discussed other library treasures, including a letter written in May 1784 from George Washington. He wrote to Jacob Morris, who delivered a package for the general to Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer who fought with Washington in the American Revolutionary War.

An Albion native, Noah Davis, received the letter from a friend who won it in a poker game, Robinson said.

The library also has the pen used in 1867 to sign bail bond for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. The pen was given to Rufus Bullock, the governor of Georgia and an Albion native.

Davis was captured in Georgia on May 10, 1865. He was taken to Fort Monroe, Virginia. Although he was accused of treason and plotting in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he was never brought to trial.

After two years in prison, he was released and lived out the rest of his life in relative peace in Biloxi, Mississippi, at the Beauvoir plantation. He died in 1889.

Bullock donated the pen to the Swan Library, which opened in 1900 and soon was taken in important artifacts because there wasn’t a museum in the county to be serve as caretaker of the items.

“It’s cool that these things that are so significant to our national history are right here,” Archer said.

To see the YouTube video of Robinson’s presentation, click here.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Ondrea Pate and her friends and family serve up beef on wick dinners today at the Elks Lodge on West State Street. They are prepared to serve 500 dinners from noon to 6 p.m.

The meals are part of a benefit for the Pate family, which lost their Albion home in a fire on June 20.

Retired Albion music teacher Linda Logan checks out some of the 100 baskets up for raffle. The event was spaced out over six hours to allow for social distancing inside the building.

The band Lonesome Road performs this afternoon. From left include Mike Whiting, Todd Colegrove, Robert Williams and drummer David Leonard.

Angelo and Ondrea Pate and their two daughters, Eowyn and Maia, are currently staying with Ondrea’s father Richard Brackenbury in Waterport. The Pate residence on West Academy Street was declared a total loss after the fire.

Noreen Dixon and her sister Donna Halladay are the leader organizers for today’s benefit. The Pates were great neighbors to their mother, Marguerite, checking in on her frequently, and responding in the middle of the night if she needed help.

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ALBION – The school district will be making Chromebooks available to all students next week, whether they are doing remote instruction or the hybrid model where they are in-person at school two days a week.

The computers will be available Monday through Friday. Families can go to their child’s building and pick up the Chromebook. The district urges families to pick up the Chromebook within this timeframe:

• August 31: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• September 1: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• September 2: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• September 3: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• September 4: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The district’s information technology department also is making a MiFi unit available to families who don’t have internet access at home. If families need a MiFi unit and didn’t fill out a survey from the district stating that need, they need to call (585) 589-2060 to request one.

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Michelle Waters opened on March 12, but then had to close until July due to Covid-19 pandemic

Photos by Tom Rivers: Michelle Waters, owner and program director of The Tree House, runs preschool, parent child classes, special events and birthday parties at the site on the second floor of 116 North Main St.

ALBION – On March 12, Michelle Waters held her first class at The Tree House, a program for young children and their families.

The first session was a parent-child music class. She had debuted the program at Dance Reflections by Miss Heather. There was a big response and Waters decided to open her own space in the second floor at 116 North Main St.

She was happy with the energy and turnout in the first class on March 12. But a few days later the site was closed to the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Michelle Waters and Cassie Langdon, assistant program director, check on these kids today who were playing at The Treehouse. Ava Waters, left, is Waters’ daughter and Kingsley Harden is Langdon’s son.

Waters had bills to pay and wanted to help families who suddenly had children home – nearly all the time. She put together activity kits and delivered them throughout Western New York. Those kits were fun and educational. There was a stuffed puppy kit, a project where children could assembly a bird feeder, a kit to do a dinosaur dig and others.

“We started the activity kits and took them to Buffalo, Rochester, Attica and locally,” Waters said. “The support from the community helped me to keep this open.”

She was able to welcome children back to The Treehouse in July, and this summer has offered several play camps and enrichment programs, with a focus on music, art and laughter. They kids do dramatic play, making “monster slime” and doing other activities that teach them to socialize with other kids, follow instructions from adults and get them ready for kindergarten.

At Tree House, children need to sanitize their hands frequently. Waters limits the number of kids to eight at a time in the 1,500-square-foot room.

She has taped off sections so kids space out, and she sets tables 6 feet apart during snack time. If she or her assistant director, Cassie Langdon, see children put a toy in their mouths, that toy goes in the “Yuck Bucket” to be sanitized.

Langdon was in the parent-child music class led by Waters when it was at Dance Reflections. Langdon was in the class with her son, Kingsley, who is now 3. Waters impressed with her energy.

“She is so welcoming and friendly,” Langdon said.

Michelle Waters, left, and Cassie Langdon look forward to a busy September and fall at The Tree House.

Waters will be offering a “playschool” program beginning next month for about 2 ½ hours, with the program for 3- and 4-year-olds on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 2-year-olds on Tuesday and Thursday.

Waters also will be making the space available for birthday parties, and a monthly parents’ night out, with programs in the evening.

Waters, 32, grew up in Holley and Rochester. She moved to Albion about a decade ago. Her daughter Ava, 2, joins her at many of the programs. She also has a son, Logan Poupore, who has proven a doting helper.

The Tree House is located in the former space for Spotlight Studio. Waters credited her husband, Patrick Waters, for helping to transform the large room into a fun place for children and their families. Patrick works with his father, Dave Waters, as a painter at Waters Autobody and Paint in Albion.

Waters will have a ribbon-cutting celebration at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Before that, she will meet with prospective playschool enrollees. She welcomes 2-year-olds and their families from 9 to 10 a.m., and 3- and 4-year-olds from 10 to 11 a.m. For more information about The Tree House, click here.

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ALBION – The couple turning the former Pillars property on West County House Road into a wedding and events center is offering a series of free classes on marketing and building a business profile online.

Kerri and Cole Glover, owners of Maison Albion, are offering the classes from Sept. 7 through Nov. 2 at 13800 West County House Rd. The class sizes are capped at 25 people and social distancing will be adhered to for the 1 1/2 hour sessions.

Mrs. Glover, a native of Maui in Hawaii, has worked 22 years in the wedding industry and has been a key leader in developing 13 other wedding venues in Hawaii, Colorado, California, Texas and Montana. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing.

Mr. Glover, a seventh-generation Texan, has a sales background, as well as 15 years in event management. He and his wife met in Denver. They were engaged in Paris and married in Venice. He has a degree in mass communication.

“We would like to offer them because our investment in this community is not just about the purchase and restoration of Maison Albion, but also in the people, businesses and community here,” Mrs. Glover said about the classes.

The class schedule includes:

• Sept. 7th – Beginning Website Design – Walk out of this class with a basic website design for your business.
• Sept. 22nd – Google My Business Listings and Online Review Management – Ensure your business is searchable in GoogleMaps, up to date, and learn how to respond and solicit online reviews.
• Oct. 7th – Social Media Creation and Development – Learn to create your Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest accounts and design social media content.
• Oct. 22nd – Public Relations and Event Marketing – Learn how to get free exposure for your business and create events that draw attention to your company.
• Nov. 2nd – Google AdWords and Beginning Search Engine Optimization – Leave this class with the knowledge to advertise with paid Google Ads and learn how to make your website searchable on the internet.

The classes begin at 5 p.m. and attendees are urged to bring a laptop or Maison Albion will have some to share. Please RSVP to bonjour@maisonalbion.com.

“When we open this venue, we want to ensure that as much revenue as possible is directed into the community,” Mrs. Glover said. “That means businesses that are searchable and recognizable online for a couple planning their wedding from Rochester and Buffalo as well. If we improve our online presence as a community, we improve the potential to capture as much income as possible locally as well.”

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Teams with Amy Sidari in Sid-Boli Productions, Crossroads Studio

Photos by Tom Rivers: Amy Sidari and Gary Simboli will be welcoming tour buses and concert-goers once the restrictions on crowd sizes ease due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Simboli last summer performed six concerts at Sidari’s Cabaret at Studio B for six bus tour groups.

ALBION – Gary Simboli, Albion’s musical director the past 35 years as well as a vocal teacher and choir director, has retired from his teaching career.

Simboli, 56, is continuing to perform in the community. Every Sunday morning he leads the music at the First Baptist Church of Albion and the First Presbyterian Church of Albion.

He also has joined forces with Amy Sidari in Crossroads Studio or Sid-Boli Productions.

Once the Covid-19 pandemic is over or restrictions relent on crowd sizes, Simboli will be performing at Sidari’s Cabaret at Studio B at the corner of Liberty and West Bank streets.

Sidari also runs the Gotta Dance by Miss Amy studio and Simboli has signed on to lead weekly sing-a-long classes for senior citizens. That starts in October.

“I will miss the kids and my theater team, but I’m very excited for this new chapter,” Simboli said during an interview at Gotta Dance and the Cabaret. “The kids have been great from the very beginning, with their heart and energy.”

Simboli and the high school drama program were working on Little Mermaid when the school was shut down on March 13. That performance was never able to happen. It would have been Simboli’s 70^thmusical at Albion.

The shows were consistently recognized as among the best high school musicals in the Rochester Region by the Stars of Tomorrow program through the Rochester Broadway Theatre League.

Gary Simboli is pictured during the June 28, 2019 Albion High School graduation along with Board of Education members Wendy Kirby, left, and Chantelle Sacco.

Simboli, in his role with Sidari, gets to be the performer while she works out the details with bus tour companies.

“She is very innovative,” Simboli said about Sidari.

During the downtime with the Covid-19 pandemic, when her studio and cabaret were closed, Sidari and her father Ace Caldwell worked to create a new space. (Simboli joked he handed some drywall to Caldwell, who is in his 80s.)

The room will be another dance studio to spread out the dance classes, which will be offered in the morning, afternoons and evenings. It will also be a “green room” for performers at the cabaret to rest and prepare off stage.

“They will be treated like kings and queens,” Sidari said.

Caldwell and Sidari also put in the infrastructure for a kitchen. Down the road, Simboli said he would love to prepare meals as part of a dinner theater at the site.

“When it’s finished, I think this place will be impressive,” Simboli said about the latest improvements.

Simboli has two shows for the performances – “Musical Mischief” and “All You Need is Love.” He performed last summer to the tour bus groups, for people who hadn’t been to Albion. They were positive about being in the historic downtown with the Courthouse Square and the Erie Canal.

“When you live here you forget just how beautiful this community is,” Simboli said.

He also is working on recording a Christmas album in time for the upcoming holiday season.

Sidari said she sees the studio and cabaret as a resource bringing hope and energy to the community, especially during trying times with the pandemic.

She is grateful Simboli is sharing his talents with the community. He has long been loved and appreciated by Albionites, but Sidari said the shows last summer proved Simboli has wide appeal. The tour bus groups all are eager to return.

“All six tour groups were booked to be back this year, with a dozen more possible,” Sidari said. “This will be a building with great energy.”

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Provided photo: Maura Pierce started on Wednesday as interim principal of the Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School in Albion.

ALBION – A familiar face to the Albion school district will be serving as interim principal of the Ronald L. Sodoma Elementary School.

Maura Pierce started on Wednesday. She worked for the school district for 34 years until retiring in 2013. She has been serving the district in other capacities, including as evaluator of teachers and as an interim principal in the high school.

“I am looking forward to celebrating my 41st first day of school in the Albion district this year,” Pierce said. “I’m thankful to once again be able to serve our district and be part of the Purple Eagle family.”

Pierce started her career at Albion as a high school English teacher. She worked as an administrator in all three buildings. She was the School to Career coordinator and director of Special Education.

“Albion is a special place – one where I chose to spend my career and put down roots,” Pierce said. “My husband and I are very happy to once again be living in our community.”

She is stepping in as interim principal following the resignation of Rachel Curtin, who was the principal the past seven years. Curtin took a job as principal of the Chautauqua Lake Elementary School in Mayville. That is near her hometown of Ripley.

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ALBION – The school district in early June typically has a recognition event for retiring staff, and also for teachers and administrators who are awarded tenure.

The Covid-19 pandemic prompted the district not to hold the event in normal fashion due to a limit on crowd sizes.

The district, however, recently held a celebration for the staff, teachers and administrators, separating the recognition program by building – elementary, middle and high school.

• Retirees – The following retirees were recognized:

Elementary school: Kelly Wadhams (1st grade), Lisa Werner (2nd grade), Lynn DiBella & Peggy Lemke (teacher aides)

Middle school: MaryAnn Jablonski (6th grade), Richard Shrout (counselor) and Tim Thornton (cleaner)

High school: Gary Simboli (Choral Director), Sarah Beckwith (cafeteria monitor), Valerie Rush (teacher aide) and Jean Swiercznski (nurse).

District: Sue Starkweather Miller (public information officer, school to career coordinator)

Board of Education: Chantelle Sacco, Joyce Riley and Gregg Boose Sr.

• Tenure – The following also were recognized for earning tenure:

Elementary school: Elizabeth Incardona (5th grade) and Maggie Orbaker (special education)

Middle school: Brad Pritchard (Principal)

High school: Elizabeth Hall (Spanish), Ann Sentiff (Science) and Jennifer Ashbery (Principal)

District: Derek Vallese, business adminsitrator

• Educator of the Year – The district most years also recognizes a teacher as the “Educator of the Year.” This year the Educator of the Year went to the partnership between the Albion staff and parents.

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Photos by Tom Rivers

WATERPORT – Harrison Brown on Wednesday was presented with a $5,000 Rotary 7090 District Scholarship. Harrison is entering his sophomore year at Cornell University. He also is in the Army ROTC program.

He is presented the scholarship by Dick Remley, left, who was the Albion Rotary Club president in 2019-20, and Bob Artis, the 7090 District Governor in 2019-20.

Harrison, a member of Albion’s Class of 2019, was picked out of about 25 applicants for the scholarship. The Rotary district includes about 70 Rotary clubs in Western New York and Southern Ontario.

Harrison is the first person from the Albion community to receive the district scholarship. It is based on academic merit, demonstration of “Service Above Self” and an essay about the ideals of Rotary. The scholarship is for the second year of college.

Harrison is majoring in agricultural science at Cornell University. His family owns Orchard Dale Fruit Company, which was founded in 1804. After he graduates from Cornell, Harrison has an eight-year commitment to the Army.

Harrison, an Eagle Scout, in one of his essays for the scholarship cited the example of his grandfather, Edward Krause. He left his senior year at Auburn during November to join the military to help the country during World War II. He would later earn his GED diploma.

That example of “Service Above Self” has long inspired Harrison. Krause is the father of Margy Brown, Harrison’s mother.

Harrison Brown, second from left, is pictured with Dick Remley, past Albion Rotary Club president; Bob Artis, past district governor (and former Holley resident); and Marlee Diehl, the current Albion Rotary Club president and past district governor.

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ALBION – The school district announced today that it will not be offering in-person learning all five days to start the school for grades Pre-K to 6.

The district was planning to have in-person schooling be an option at those grade levels each school day, with grades 7 to 12 on a hybrid schedule, with in-person learning two days a week and remote learning the other three.

Now the district is looking at a hybrid schedule for all students. Families can also choose to do remote learning every day with no in-person learning.

“We will reassess the structure for grades PK-6 after the first five weeks of school to see if it would be possible to have students here for more than two days, but will need to start in the two-day-a-week model,” interim superintendent Scott Bishoping said in a letter to families. “We had hoped that we could manage having elementary students each day but we cannot be certain we can provide enough space to start the school year in that format.”

The needs to ensure that students are distanced by at least 6 feet so that face coverings can be removed while in the classroom, he said.

The district will discuss the reopening plan during three virtual parent forums on Wednesday. Those sessions will be at 10 a.m., 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Click here for more on the forums, including the links to the session which will be on YouTube.

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John Keding, nearing 85^th birthday, could fix anything

Photos by Tom Rivers: John Keding, owner of Keding Automotive on East Avenue in Albion, has his last day of business on Wednesday. He has been working as a mechanic since he was 14.

ALBION – John Keding – a mechanic since he was 14, first fixing lawn mowers – is finally calling it a career. His last day of business will be Wednesday. He has been working for 70 years.

Keding, who is two weeks from his 85^th birthday, said he will miss his customers and daily interactions out in the community.

Keding put an ad in this past weekend’s Lake Country Pennysaver, announcing his retirement. Today, the phone rang often with congratulations.

Linn and Sarah Beckwith, customers for about 20 years, showed up in person with cookies and cards for Keding, office manager Karen Dibley and mechanic Shawn Deibel.

John Keding is shown in the shop today with mechanic Shawn Deibel and office manager Karen Dibley.

Mr. Beckwith said Keding has unquestionable honesty, and would spring into action for his customers.

“He provided very good service over the years,” said Mrs. Beckwith. “I had a lot of emergencies. He had quite a team here. We’re going to miss them.”

Keding said he is selling the building at 309 East Ave. to his daughter Christine and son-in-law Michael Buorgiorne. It will be the base for Buorgiorne’s construction business.

When Keding started as a mechanic when he was a teen-ager, he installed turning lights and fixed lawn mowers.

He learned the auto mechanic trade at the General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich., beginning the two-year program in 1953. He worked for General Motors for three years before a two-year stint in Army at Fort Dix from 1958 to 1960.

He returned to Albion in 1960 and worked as a mechanic for a car dealership for 13 years before a brief stint as an electrician.

He opened his own business at the East Avenue location in January 1974. Keding said the work has become more high-tech with problems in cars more difficult to diagnose due to computers and electronics in vehicles.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said about his career. “It’s something I always wanted to do.”

Shawn Deibel, 25, has worked with Keding the past eight years, starting in high school.

“John has been a good teacher,” Deibel said. “He has always been accepting and if I needed help he would lend a hand. He has been a wealth of knowledge.”

Karen Dibley has worked as the office manager for the past 14 years. She will be taking a job at the high school as a teacher’s aide.

“He has a love for the job,” Dibley said about Keding. “If it came in broken, he could fix it. He has really enjoyed being out in the community.”

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