Chris Graue and Ron Zurkammer

Zurkammer to start the new year with a new lifestyle; retiring from Graue Chevrolet after 50 years

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[January 04, 2016]  LINCOLN - Typically the next few dates on the calendar are a time when folks take a look back at the year they are leaving, and a look forward at the one approaching. It is a time of remembering the good, and hoping to put behind them the bad, and making promises of changes they will make when the calendar rolls over to a new year.

Ron Zurkammer is taking this process literally, as he will end 2015 as the Parts Manager at Graue Chevrolet and begin 2016 as a stay at home husband, father, grandfather, and tinkerer. That’s right, after 50 years the reliable face of Graue’s Parts Department is retiring.


Ron pictured center

At 69 years of age, Zurkammer has spent 72 percent of his lifetime thus far working with the dealership. He started with Graue on January 2, 1966 at the age of 19. It was the second job he had held in his young lifetime, and it worked out so well, he stayed, and stayed, and stayed. Now after 50 years, he’s ready to hang it up.

Talking about what next week will bring, Zurkammer said there is a list of “honey-do” projects waiting for him, he has kids and grandkids close-by that he hopes to spend more time with, and he plans on attending more of the grandkids sporting events. He also has a collection of vintage cars (all Chevy’s of course) that he plans to tinker with from time to time.

Zurkammer began his career with the Partlow-Graue dealership in 1966 working in the lube rack. After being there only ten months, he was called into service by Uncle Sam and served our country during the Vietnam War era. When his stint in the service was over 23 months later, he returned to his job at the dealership.

In 1968, he was moved into the Parts Department. Zurkammer said at that time the dealership was still in the downtown area across from Latham Park where today the recycling bins are located. That building was victim to fire in 1969, and the dealership was moved to its current location on the north end of Kickapoo Street in Lincoln. In 1980, Zurkammer became the Parts Manager for the dealership and has held that position to today.

Zurkammer has worked for two generations of Graue’s, first Bob, who began working for Partlow Chevrolet and later bought into the business making it Partlow-Graue. Next the dealership was Graue-Sawicki.  Over time, the business would evolve into Graue Chevrolet, with Bob at the helm and Ron at the Parts counter.

The torch was then passed to Chris Graue, who is the owner-manager of the dealership today. Zurkammer remembered that when he began working for Graue, Chris was only a toddler, so he has watched his boss grow up.

For the younger generation, it may be hard to consider a life without computers, but in the 1960’s, 70’s, and early 1980’s, the Parts Department was maintained with paper. Chris Graue remembered the racks and racks of parts books that were a daily part of doing business at Graue Chevrolet.

Zurkammer remembered that for a short time, the parts department went to a microfiche, but it didn’t work out well, so they went back to books. In 1980, the Parts Department moved to computers. Zurkammer recalled that was quite a transition with a lot to learn.

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Zurkammer has been one of those employees that every employer wishes for, and not many get. Graue noted Zurkammer's dedication to the dealership saying he has always been one of those who didn’t take time off, and was even known to be in his office on Sunday’s getting work done while it was quiet. “I can remember only one time he took a sick day, and we thought the world had come to an end then,” Graue said.

Zurkammer also remembered that day and said it was while he was going through cancer treatments over 20 years ago. He said to his recollection he did take one day off during that illness, and he may have taken a snow day once. Zurkammer also noted that while he was battling Cancer, he had the support of his employer. Though he made it to work every day, there were days when he didn’t feel well, and he would leave early, or only spend a part of a day, with no questions from his employer.


The Graue staff in 1972

Graue expressed that it is Zurkammer’s dedication to his job that has made the Parts Department at Graue’s a well-run machine and an asset to the company. “As a result of his dedication, we have about the cleanest, most up-to-date inventory of anyone around,” Graue said. “I’d put Ron up against any Parts Manager, any computer system, in knowing how the system operates and knowing how to get numbers out of it, and keep things arranged correctly.”
 


Graue said that while employees like Zurkammer are not truly ‘replaceable” the dealership has hired a new Parts Manager that is doing well. Zurkammer had told his employer early in 2015 that he would be leaving at the end of the year. Graue said that gave him ample time to work on finding someone who could come in, work side by side with Ron, and make the transition as smooth as possible. Graue commented, “We’ll never be able to replace someone like Ron, it’s just impossible, but we have a replacement that is very, very qualified. In passing the torch, he (Ron) has spent a lot of time with our new guy, (Tyler Bayless) getting him up to speed.”

In summing up his feelings, Graue said, “Ron has been a valuable asset to the dealership for a long, long time, as long as I can remember. We’re going to certainly miss him. You can have the best products and the best building, the greatest merchandise, but if you don’t have good people, you don’t have a good business. Our Parts Department has been one of those things that we just let Ron run, and he has done a good job."

Ron added his own sentiment as well, “I feel quite fortunate to be able to work for the same company that many years, and the same family. His dad was real good to me, and Chris has been good to me.”

While Zurkammer is ‘going out quietly” at the end of the year, the dealership is planning an event at a later date to celebrate Zurkammer and his retirement from the dealership.

[Nila Smith]

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