Joe and Gerry Kotlar
Joe enlisted in the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. He spent 2 years in the service starting with San Diego and then Okinawa, before being discharged in 1953. He then went to the Laney Trade School using his GI Bill, with the idea that he would like to become an auto mechanic. It was about this time that Joe got into racing hard tops for a couple of years at the old Oakland Speedway. He was the driver, mechanic, builder and sponsor. A friend was his one-man pit crew. He even built a race car while he was attending Laney.
Joe found that getting into an apprentice program with an employer was not that easy. After being disappointed with his efforts to do that, he leased a Richfield Service Station and started wrenching on cars in between pumping gas.
The Richfield station was not what he thought it should be and after a year he hired on with a Chrysler Plymouth dealer. After a 30 day trial as an apprentice he was declared a full mechanic, thus avoiding the usual 4 year apprenticeship.
It wasn’t too long before he decided that the Chrysler Plymouth job was not what he really wanted and when a Union Gas Station became available he was back in business for himself. He had the back room filled with repair business. After 5 years Union was getting on his case because he wasn’t pumping enough gas.
The fellow down the street wanted to get out of his Mobil station so this was Joe’s chance. It had a 4 car repair shop, and now he was really in business. He had to hire some help and eventually did away with pumping gas because it was taking too much time. This was Joe’s last move. he stayed with the Mobil station until he retired in 1989. It is interesting that all of his working life was spent right in San Leandro.
Joe laughs about how he got into collecting cars. He says that he has always driven old cars that just got older instead of newer. He tells a fun story about how a little old lady customer had a dead battery, so he went to her house to get the battery, and that is when he found the 1928 Buick Coupe under cover in her garage. It had belonged to her uncle Barney, who it turned out was the famous Barney Oldfield. Joe worked on her for 10 years before she would sell it to him. He then did a complete restoration on it.
Joe and Gerry joined the Redwood Region in 1975, and it was the first club for them. Since then they have joined the Buick Club, the Franklin Club and the Nickel Age Touring Club. They are very active with all of them and are gone almost every weekend.
Even though Joe put in long hours during the week he made time for the weekends to indulge in water skiing during the summer and snow skiing in the winter. Over the 20 years he had 3 ski boats, and spent many weekends on the Delta and area reservoirs.
They were snow skiing at Alpine Meadows when it opened in 1962, and this was before the road in was completed. They have been skiing continually to this time. They enjoy getting the senior passes now. Years ago they used to look for the most challenging route to the bottom, but now they find the easier way more inviting. They now go to Sugar Bowl and Northstar for their skiing fun.
To round out their hobbies and activities, they both enjoy gardening. Joe says he does the grunt work while Gerry does the hard work of planning and planting. They now enjoy traveling, and so far have made 2 trips to Europe with Chuck and Ann Harrison.
Gerry was born in Oakland, grew up and graduated from Fremont High. It was 1962 when they married and she moved to San Leandro. She worked for Pacific Bell in accounting for 12 years and quit when their son John was born. Later, she kept the books for Joe and performed other support tasks at the shop.
Joe and Gerry have been very active with the Redwood Region and their son John, who back in the 1970’s traveled with them on lots of CHVA tours and events, is married and now lives in Castro Valley where he is the pastor at a church.
Published in AAN May-June, 2006
