Charlotte's Eldon Howe, 88, more determined than ever after debilitating accident
In March a truck hit Charlotte's Eldon Howe, breaking his legs and hip. The 88-year-old leader at Beacon Sales & Service isn't letting it stop him.
Charlotte's Eldon Howe, 88, more determined than ever after debilitating accident In March a truck hit Charlotte's Eldon Howe, breaking his legs and hip. The 88-year-old leader at Beacon Sales & Service isn't letting it stop him. Check out this story on lansingstatejournal.com: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/12/21/eldon-howe-88-more-determined-than-ever-after-debilitating-accident/2251756002/
Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal Published 6:00 a.m. ET Dec. 21, 2018 | Updated 9:59 a.m. ET Dec. 21, 2018
Eldon Howe, 88, of Charlotte, talks about his years in the auto dealership business, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, at home in Charlotte. He is the founder of Beacon Sales & Service in Charlotte.(Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)Buy Photo
CHARLOTTE – It was a stroke of bad luck that robbed Eldon Howe of spring's flowers and rains, summer's golden sunsets and fall's foliage.
He was walking across the service floor at Beacon Sales & Service, the dealership he founded more than 60 years ago, when an employee's foot slipped off the brake of a truck.
The truck slammed the 88-year-old's body into a work bench and pinned him there. It was over in seconds but left Howe crumpled on the floor with two broken legs and a broken hip.
That was in March.
After that, 2018 was "a lost year," he said.
Hospital and rehabilitation rooms were his home until nearly September, as Howe worked to recover after the devastating accident, which sidelined him from the business he built from the ground up.
Doctors at Sparrow Hospital told the Howe family he might not survive his injuries.
But Howe has been a workaholic for more than seven decades. He's worked six to seven days a week since the 1940s, spending countless hours on his feet helping customers and working at the dealership.
Their family patriarch's constant drive and unforgiving routine, all the hours spent at the business that resulted in lost time with his family for years, left Howe strong and healthy, even in his 80s.
It likely helped save his life, family members said
Building a business
Growing up, David Howe, 54, rarely saw his father outside the family business.
His grandparents often picked him up after school and dropped him at Beacon Sales & Service, where dad Eldon and mom Patricia worked.
Eldon Howe (left) with his son David Howe, who now runs the day-to-day operations at the business. "He was always busy," David Howe said of his father. "But I was always just mentally taking notes on how quick he serviced the customers." (Photo: Courtesy photo)
"Our togetherness was always at the dealership," David Howe said. "And anything that we did together, it was car-related. The business is a huge part of who he is. He loves it."
Eldon Howe cultivated that early on. His parents, Chester and Beulah Howe, owned 15 acres at Vermontville Highway and M-50, and ran a country store on the property.
At a young age Eldon Howe would play hooky from school, hiding in the vehicle oil-changing pit until after classes had started.
By 15 he had decided to drop out of school and start his own vehicle repair business on an acre of land on the Howe property.
"I never liked school," he said. "I was lucky to get through the eighth grade. I just never cared about it."
Beacon Sales & Service at its original location at Vermontville Highway and M-50 in the 1950s. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
Business ownership, and cars, were another story.
He taught himself about vehicles, reading anything he could about them, and using "common sense" as a barometer when he worked on each one.
And business ownership?
"It came natural," he said.
By 1954 Howe turned the repair operation into a small used car sales operation. He called it Beacon.
"The building was kind of a triangular building," Eldon Howe said. "We put a beacon light up on top of it. It turned around and around."
It was a novelty, he said, but customers quickly associated it with the store.
"I borrowed money from everybody to get started," Eldon Howe said.
He also pushed back against established limitations in the industry.
In 1950, Howe was 20 when he convinced representatives at Hudson Motor Car Company to grant him a franchise agreement to sell their vehicles, despite a requirement that franchisees be at least 21 years old.
Beacon Sales & Service lost its franchise agreement with Chrysler in 2009 when the automaker filed for bankruptcy. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
"They wanted to know why I wanted to be a dealer," he said. "I said I had in mind I wanted to be a dealer is all. That's how I got started with Hudson."
Within a few years Howe acquired franchise agreements to sell DeSoto and Plymouth vehicles too, and eventually Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep.
He bought property on Lansing Road before 1960. When the building burned in 1975 — the fire started in a storage area — Howe rebuilt despite having no insurance to cover the loss.
Eldon Howe (right) at work at Beacon Sales & Service several years before the March 2018 accident that sidelined his ability to be there every day. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
In 2009 Beacon Sales & Service was one of nearly 800 dealers who lost their franchise agreements with Chrysler amid its bankruptcy.
Beacon Sales & Service regrouped under Howe's leadership, becoming a certified pre-owned vehicle dealership. They also offer towing, a parts department, and service and body shops.
On any given year the business sells upwards of 150 vehicles, David Howe, who works at the business along with Eldon Howe's granddaughter, said.
Eldon Howe said he takes pride in outlasting other local dealerships that never recovered after losing their connection with Chrysler.
"Some of them couldn't make it," he said. "I want to know everything going on at my business. Without that, I don't think a person can make it, without the intuition to be with it all the time."
A born 'workaholic'
Howe admits his youth probably led some people to underestimate him early in his career, but he never realized it was happening.
"I guess you had to prove yourself to everybody," he said.
Eldon Howe, 88, of Charlotte, talks about his years in the auto dealership business, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, at home in Charlotte. He is the founder of Beacon Sales & Service in Charlotte. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)
Long-time customer Don Colizzi has been buying cars at Beacon Sales & Service since 1967.
The small operation employs just eight people today, but Colizzi said the service is "outstanding" and he credits Howe with setting that standard.
He's never felt pressured to buy a vehicle there, and Colizzi said Howe's car knowledge is remarkable.
"He knows that business probably better than anybody in the state. He knows more about cars than anybody I know."
Howe's devotion to the customer is "refreshing," Colizzi said, recalling one New Year's Eve when his vehicle door wouldn't shut.
Beacon Sales & Service's first building on Lansing Road in Charlotte burned in 1975 when a fire started in the facility's storage area. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
Colizzi and his wife, on their way to a holiday party, stopped by the Beacon lot at nearly midnight to find Eldon Howe still on the job, and happy to help.
"He fixed it," Colizzi said. "That's the kind of person he is. He's a rare breed. The customer first, always."
Howe said he's always run the business under a simple premise.
"Every day is a new day," he said. "Every day is a new boss when the door opens."
David Howe has been working at the dealership full time since 1982. His father's dedication can't be matched, he said.
At 87, when the accident happened, Eldon Howe was still hard at work, walking the service floor, assisting customers and ordering parts daily.
Daughter-in-law Eldora Howe said he "loves" the business. After his wife Patricia died six years ago, his commitment to it intensified.
Eldon Howe knows every inch of Beacon's property, said granddaughter Keisha Howe, 31, and has never been anything less than its leader.
When hospital staff said her grandfather might not survive his March accident, deep down she said she knew better than to believe them.
"I knew if anybody could survive it, it would be him," she said.
Determined, and recovering
On a recent Monday morning in December, Eldon Howe sat in a recliner with his feet up at his home in Charlotte.
Eldon Howe, 88, of Charlotte, talks about his years in the auto dealership business, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, at home in Charlotte with his dog Shiloh on his lap. He is the founder of Beacon Sales & Service in Charlotte. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)
Just behind him logs burned in the fireplace, and his dog Shiloh lay on the carpet nearby, keeping him company.
He's heard the word "workaholic" uttered by friends and family over the years, but before the March 12 accident, Howe had never suffered a major injury.
He remembers losing the clipboard he was carrying when the truck hit him that day, and when an employee rushed to his aid, he said he knew his legs were broken. He was turning white with shock on the dealership floor when the ambulance arrived.
At Sparrow he survived a five-hour surgery to repair the broken bones in his legs and hip.
Doctors said his overall good health and strong bones, strengthened from years spent standing on the service floor, were a factor in its success.
"I didn't need to exercise," he said, smiling.
His recovery has been a lesson in patience. He spent six weeks at the hospital and four months at Eaton County Health and Rehabilitation Services in Charlotte.
His recovery involved a lot of time "looking at four walls," he said.
Staff needed to get him on his feet and walking with the assistance of a walker. They also had to make sure he could do simple things for himself, like putting on shoes and socks.
He's still using the walker, and hopes to graduate to a cane, but says it hasn't been easy.
"It makes you mad you can't put your hands on something and do it," Howe said. "It's kind of a challenge, just like business is kind of a challenge, but you have to get it done."
Eldon Howe, 88, of Charlotte, seated, with son David and granddaughter Keisha, on Monday, Dec. 10, 2018, at his home in Charlotte. Eldon is the founder of Beacon Sales & Service in Charlotte. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)
In September, after his release from rehab, Howe held a party at this house, inviting not only the emergency personnel who responded to the 911 call, but also the doctors and staff who helped in his recovery. More than 200 people attended.
"I think they treated me exceptionally good," he said. "It was just a little token of appreciation."
These days Howe spends time with family outside the dealership, but he wants to get back to work.
"If it's possible he'll be there," David Howe said.
Howe is determined.
"I hope to get back," he said. "That's my goal. The sooner I get back the better off I'll be."
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Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at (517) 528-2075 or rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.
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