Now he’ll be wrenching on a ‘65 mustang of his own
TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
Harvey Thomaschefsky is retiring from employment as an auto mechanic after 41 years and five months of turning a wrench, but he’s not putting his tools down altogether. Retirement means that now he’ll be able to turn his attention to a dream project of his own.
“Harvey came to work as a mechanic at Bloechl Motor Company in 1980 and stayed on when we purchased the dealership in 1988,” said Jim Brickner, President and co-owner of Brickner’s Park City in Merrill.
“Harvey came with the dealership …,” he said. “Harvey and I are the last of the original seven people who were with the dealership when we started operations.”
“Harvey is one of those guys that everybody in town knows,” Brickner said. “He has probably fixed most everybody’s car one time or another, and is one of those good guys that we were lucky to be blessed to have working with us.”
“Harvey cared about his customers. He would try and fix every vehicle in a way to help keep the cost down for the customer, would recommend fixing only what was needed, and was always on time, and on task,” he said. “Harvey is a true mechanic. He always had the right tools and skills and experience to fix almost anything.”
“We always joke that Harvey’s been around so long he once fixed Jesus’s donkey cart,” Brickner added, laughing.
More importantly, he had the kind of work ethic and attitude any employer would envy. “Harvey always has a smile on his face,” Brickner said.
“So today is a bit of a momentous day here at the dealership,” he said on May 25, 2022. “Harvey Thomaschefsky is retiring.”
“He will be hard to replace,” he added. “One of the best people you will ever meet.”
Thomaschefsky isn’t disappearing entirely from Brickner’s however. “I’m still going to work part-time, but full time is done,” Thomaschefsky said. “Just like maintenance stuff – not working on cars anymore. Taking care of equipment … oil furnaces and stuff like that, general maintenance that I’ve already been doing.”
On the mechanic side of things, “We have been very fortunate to have hired a very experienced young man who is relocating here from Montana, and we are very excited to see how he does,” Brickner said.
And Thomaschefsky is excited, too. “I bought a ‘65 mustang that I’m restoring,” he said. “It just got it painted yesterday.” [That was Thursday, May 26, the day immediately following his official retirement!] It is a dark metallic blue, not a traditional color, but a color he really liked, he said. His goal is to have it on the road next year. “I bought it in a box,” Thomaschefsky said. “It was stripped down to the shell. I have to put it all back together.”
When he’s not wrenching on this classic restoration, Harvey and his wife, Terri, hope to “get in a little more camping,” said Thomaschefsky who will turn 69 in July.
They have a lot of life left to live, and Thomaschefsky isn’t wasting any time getting right to it.