Advertisement. Advertise with us

Kirn’s Closes Doors

On 60-Year Tradition

  Owner Don Hoag Joining Wife Rosie

In Retirement, Puts Body Shop On Market

Don and Rosie Hoag this afternoon in front of Kirn’s Body Shop on Route 28 south of the Cooperstown village line. They hold a photo of the original Kirn’s, which opened in 1966 where the batting cages are today next to the Doubleday Field parking lot. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

Kirn’s original wrecker from the 1960s. It was immediately called into service.

COOPERSTOWN – Forty-one years after Edward Kirn began teaching Don Hoag the auto-body repair business, the venerable Kirn’s Body Shop closed its doors for good on Friday, the owner-operator announced this afternoon.

Interviewed with his wife Rosemary, the founder’s daughter, by his side, Hoag gave three reasons:

  • “The changing industry, and what it takes to fix a car.”
  • “As you know, in this community, the help picture is really tight.”
  • Those two reasons led to a third: He realized he needed to reinvent the business, and at 60½ he and Rosie concluded it’s time to let go.

That decision made sense, they said, particularly since he and Rosie lost their son, Justin, age 32, of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy on Sept. 27, 2016.  There’s no one to carry on the business.

“I got to meet so many people in the community,” Hoag said.  “It’s not like I’m saying I’m glad it’s over.”

For now, Eagle Towing of Cobleskill, which has an installation on Route 205, West Oneonta, will be handling Triple-A requests, he said.

Also, the business is for sale, and Hoag’s been receiving calls from interested parties.

The founding father, Ed Kirn, a farmer in the Town of Middlefield in his early years, began to learn the auto-body trade in the 1950s, working first for Al Welch at Tower Motors, where the Mirabito quick-stop is now, then for Ed Smith’s Ford dealership.

In 1960, he began working on cars at home, and in 1966 opened his first Kirn’s Body Shop next to Doubleday Field, where the batting cages are today.

In 1976, he shifted his operations to the lower floor at 21 Railroad Ave., where the Bassett Pain Clinic is today, and moved in 1978 to the current location, on Route 28 just south of the village line.

At that point in the interview, Bobby Kirn, one of the founder’s four children, called from Tennessee, where he lives in retirement, and reported the first car his father worked on in 1960 was a 1954 Mercury hardtop.

In the go-go ’60s, many kitchens were being redone in gold and other bright colors.  “We painted a lot of refrigerators and stoves gold,” he remembered.

Bob also recalled the purchase of Kirn’s first wrecker, in 1967 or ’68, and the first call: A Trailways bus got stuck in the mud at the Lakefront Motel at the end of Fair Street, and Ed Kirn looped a chain around a nearby maple tree to unstick it.

The bus driver took out a check book.  How much, he asked.  Ed Kirn hadn’t gotten that far: $25, he said.  And the driver pulled the wallet out of his pocket and paid in cash.

In recent years, Kirn’s wreckers have been staples at every major or minor accident around here.  Few residents whose cars have been hit by deer or who wake up in the morning to a dead battery haven’t dealt with Kirn’s crews.  Don said the company has been community-minded, doing work at no cost for the Cooperstown and Hartwick Seminary fire departments.

Hoag graduated from high school and in 1978 began working for Ed Kirn, where he met the owner’s daughter, Rosie; the two married, and he’s been with the business ever since.  She retired last November after 40+ years at Bassett.

Ed Kirn fell and broke his hip in 2007, and when he died in 2011, Hoag had been running the business for four years.  His father-in-law, Don remembers, would stop by the business almost every day until the end.

Ed Jr. and a sister, Joan Cauley, now both retired in Florida, sold their shares to Don and Rosemary, and Bob and Charlene Kirn.  Bob and Charlene have since retired.

Don Hoag has been the face of Kirn’s for years.  He and Rosie plan to stay in the area – you will continue to spot them Friday evenings at the Doubleday Café’s fish fry – and he will continue driving bus, as he has since 1981.

“The Kirn’s name has provided service since the 1960s,” he reflected.  “That’s 60 years.”

Posted

6 Comments

  1. Oh my goodness. Whoever buys this long time body shop/business better be planning on upholding the honesty, integrity of it all. The Kirns have been part of my family (!) for years. Mr. Kirn did the body work on my 1969 GTO when it was involved in an accident…no details on that will I publish! My hope is that whoever takes over this business keeps the integrity part attached to it. So long Kirns…or maybe not. A hard pill to swallow after all of these many years. Frani

  2. Don
    All the best, not everyone understands what it takes to run a business in today’s world. Secondly not everyone understands how hard it is to close a business after 60 years. Enjoy!!
    Paul Clark

  3. So sad, but well deserved. We could always count on Kirn’s when we needed their expertise. Because of AAA’s policy of not helping with a trailer when you were having a problem with the truck pulling it, we dropped them. One day we needed help, so called Good Sam club and who shows up but KIRN’S . We were so happy to see them. You will be missed by so many people. Enjoy you retirement!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Articles

SCOLINOS: It’s All We Need To Know: Home Plate 17 Inches Wide

COLUMN VIEW FROM THE GAME It’s All We Need To Know: Home Plate 17 Inches Wide Editor’s Note:  Tim Mead, incoming Baseball Hall of Fame president, cited John Scolinos, baseball coach at his alma mater, Cal Poly Pomona, as a lifelong inspiration, particularly Scolinos’ famous speech “17 Inches.” Chris Sperry, who published sperrybaseballlife.com, heard Scolinos deliver a version in 1996 at the American Baseball Coaches Association in Nashville, and wrote this reminiscence in 1916 in his “Baseball Thoughts” column. By CHRIS SPERRY • from www.sperrybaseballlife.com In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching…

Piper Seamon Scores 1,000th point

1,000 THANKS! Piper Seamon 5th CCS Girl To Hit High Mark The Cooperstown Central student section erupts as Piper Seamon scores her 1,000th career point in the Hawkeyes’ 57-39 win over Waterville at home last evening. Seamon becomes the fifth girl and only the 14th player in school history overall to score 1,000 points.  Inset at right, Pipershares a hug with teammate Meagan Schuermann after the game was stopped to acknowledge her achievement. Seamon will play basketball next year at Hamilton College. (Cheryl Clough/AllOTSEGO.com)  …

Sports Can Resume, Superintendents Told

CLICK HERE FOR MEMO TO SCHOOLS Sports Can Resume, Superintendents Told COOPERSTOWN – In a memo released Friday evening, county Public Health Director Heidi Bond advised local school superintendents that sports can resume as early as Monday. “Effective Feb. 1, participants in higher-risk sports may participate in individual or distanced group training and organized no/low-contact group training,” Bond wrote, “…including competitions and tournaments, if permitted by local health authorities.”…

Putting the Community Back Into the Newspaper

Now through March 30, new annual subscribers to “The Freeman’s Journal” and AllOtsego.com (or subscribers who have lapsed for two or more years) have an opportunity to help their choice of one of four Otsego County charitable organizations.

$5.00 of your subscription will be donated to the nonprofit of your choice:

Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, Cooperstown Food Pantry, Greater Oneonta Historical Society or Super Heroes Humane Society.