Tire dealers now more than ever understand the importance of finding and retaining hardworking employees.
Walker Tire Point S, a four-location dealership headquartered in Lincoln, Neb., has an employee at its retreading facility who has worked there for 64 years.
Intro to retreading
Fay Kapke joined Walker Tire in 1959. (The dealership, now a Pre-Q Galgo retreader, opened its doors only eight years prior.)
“I just wanted a job,” at the time, he says.
“I got out of school and went job hunting. I think (Walker Tire) was the third place I went to and got offered a job.”
He started out doing oil changes and service calls. Then in 1961 a new opportunity presented itself.
“Mr. Walker (the dealership’s owner) came up to me and asked if I wanted to try out retreading because the (company’s) old retreader had retired,” explains Kapke.
“I told him, ‘Yeah, I’d rather do that than go out in a snowstorm and change someone's tire.’”
He says that he loved retreading from the moment he started because there is “always so much to learn and always something to do.”
Back then, most of his training was on the job.
“If I did something and it worked, I kept doing that.” he says. “If I did something that didn’t work, I didn’t do that anymore.”
No plans to retire
At nearly 83 years old, Kapke has seen his fair share of trends and changes, especially in the retreading industry.
“We used to cement treads way back when I first started,” he says.
“We used to have to carry everything, too. It was all very laborious. Now there are cable horses and extruder guns and chemical patches and envelopes. It makes it easier.”
Right now, Kapke works Monday through Thursday, 24 hours a week.
“I really love what I do and that’s the secret to all of this. You have to really love what you are doing.”
The employees at Walker reciprocate that love to Kapke.
Steve Gewecke, retread plant manager at Walker, says Kapke runs “circles around guys 50 years his junior.
“He has a knowledge base that he is eager to share and has forgotten more about retreading than most of us will ever learn.
“My son came into the plant to see where I worked and I introduced him to Fay by calling him ‘The Grand Poobah.’
“Fay looked at my son and said, ‘Your dad calls me that, but I don’t know if it’s an insult or not.’
“I informed Fay that a Grand Poobah was a local official of great wisdom and importance,” says Gewecke. “Fay thought about it for a moment and then said to my son, ‘I am The Grand Poobah’ and got back to applying the cushion gun to the tire he was working on.”
Kapke says he has no plans to retire and if technology keeps making his job less laborious, he might “last another ten years.
“We’re doing alright, and I am enjoying it and still pretty healthy,” says Kapke. “Tires do that, too. They keep you healthy.
“I’d hate to retire and start on my ‘honey-do’ list,” he adds with a laugh. “And honestly, I don’t want to stop because I’m just now getting the hang of it!”
