Ron’s Story
Heading toward our 44th Birthday Celebration, thank you for stopping by our site and our page.
Often I’m asked what got me started, so here’s a little of my story to explain the character of my business. It all started with nothing except the wonderful support of the local community.
My story began when I was in grade school working in a garage behind my mother’s house on 7th Avenue in Altoona. It’s no longer there, but the memories of that garage will linger for the rest of my life. I spent more time in that garage, building models, modifying them, fixing bikes, taking mine apart altering it, and putting them back together. I just loved fixing mechanical stuff. I moved on to working on neighbors’ and friends’ cars before I was able to drive and continued all through high school when I wasn’t working a variety of odd jobs.
My mother was a single parent, raising and supporting four of us and her mother. My father passed when he was a very young man, “36”. Looking back, I didn’t realize what was going on, but I remember watching my mother work many jobs to make us all feel like we never missed out on anything. Those work ethics became the foundation for my future.
In high school, I found the second love of my life, now my wife of 38 years. My first love, of course, was my mother, she passed in September 2017 and was as tough as always until her last day.
After high school, I continued my education at Penn Tech for the next two years, attending as many business classes as I could. Not to be a burden any longer to my mother, I knew not only going to school and working hard was necessary but also finding work to pay my expenses. So after I went to school during the day, I worked at J.C. Penneys selling suits until closing and then to Frito-Lay to work for the third shift maintenance crew.
I can remember looking to find a job at a body shop, but no one would hire me without experience. I figured they wouldn’t turn me down if they didn’t have to pay me. With that philosophy, I found a shop that would allow me to work on occasion, for free, when they needed extra help. I didn’t get paid, but I was looking for the on-the-job training.
After graduating, I returned home without any money. All I had was the 67′ Barracuda that I spent years working on and a small toolbox with hardly any tools in it. I then found a short-lived job at a local body shop. To this day, I still don’t know if the floors were 
dirt or just dirty, but it was time to move on.
Professionals Auto Body was born in 1979 when I was nineteen years old. I found a garage with a compressor in it but had no money for the first month’s rent. To get my business started, I traded my Barracuda for a motorcycle along with some cash to pay the first month’s rent. For the first few years, I worked hard. A usual day of work was 15-17 hours a day, with a lot of hustling to find work. I loved it! People in the area supported me back then like they do today. Because of community support, it’s one of the main reasons I’m so loyal to the consumers in the area. They’ve always have taken care of me, and they know that I am committed to only do the right things for them.
Now over forty-five years later, we are a dominant player in the market due to our loyalty to our customers and loyalty to our staff. If you had repairs done with us anytime in the last 35 years, you would see some of the same people still here. They have helped make Professionals what we are today with their hard work and willingness to do whatever it takes to take care of this company and its customers. They are the backbone of who we are. They are what makes the customer experience at Professionals special.
The bottom line is you have made us what we are, and we are committed to taking care of you and your vehicles. One thing is for sure, we will continue to do what you tell us every week, and that’s “keep doing what you’re doing.”