Kirn’s Closes Doors
On 60-Year Tradition
Owner Don Hoag Joining Wife Rosie
In Retirement, Puts Body Shop On Market
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
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.
