Many companies / organizations say that it is their “people that make all the difference”. That has certainly also been true at West Park. We would not be in business today were it not for the many people (team members, suppliers and customers) who have been involved with West Park since we began in 1968. As an example, some of the customers who did business with us in our first few days of business are still our customers today.    

The following pictures show just a small number of the people who have been involved with West Park Motors over the years …

Dave Beckert owned the dealership prior to it becoming West Park Motors in 1968. In 1963 he built the first phase of our current building.  

   

Dick Penner and Henry Stoesz purchased the GM store from Dave Beckert in the fall of 1968 and named it West Park Motors. Well actually they named it D & H Motors and operated that way for about a week before finding that someone else was already using the D & H Motors name and they could not register it. We are not sure where the “West” Park name came from as we are on the “East” side of town but we will do some more digging to see if we can find out how our name came about.

Ray Loewen remembers some of the lessons he learned as a young salesperson from Dick and Henry. As an example Henry suggested that “ it is always easier to tell customers the truth – that way you do not have to try to remember what you told them last week; you will know” … in the first weeks that Ray was at West Park, Henry also mentioned that he did not know much about sales but one thing he did know – “don’t ever run down someone’s trade-in; it may be the only vehicle they have and is probably their pride and joy; so even if it is not much to look at never run it down”.    

Some of the early employees at West Park Motors were …

 Dave Derksen was in parts. One of the other parts people in the early days of West Park was Len Hildebrand (not pictured), who went on to spend many years at the Post Office in Altona.

 

Cornie Peters, Jake Franz, Jake Rempel and Tony Harms were technicians in the early days of West Park. Not pictured in this posting is Bernie Klassen, another technician who was already at Beckert Motors prior to the dealership becoming West Park Motors. Cornie just retired a week ago … Tony still stops in regularly to pick up parts so he obviously has not. 

Wilbert (Flab) Friesen was the West Park accountant for many years and later became a part owner of the business. These days you will usually find Flab at Oakview Golf and Country Club where he plays occasionally but is also managing the club house. 

Bob Stoesz started at West Park working evenings pumping gas in late August of 1968 and then moved into parts. Among his many talents, Bob has an amazing memory for part numbers. Bob has been our Fixed Operations Manager for many years with responsibility for the overall operation of our parts and service departments.

Ray Loewen had more hair in the early 70’s than he has today. He started selling cars at West Park in June of 1973 and is the current dealer.