Projo Cars Blog

One of the great privileges of my profession is being able to meet people from all walks of life. Yesterday was a day in which I interviewed two people for future stories who could not be more different, even though both have had close associations with automobiles all their lives.

In the morning, Journal photographer Steve Szydlowski and I went down to Wakefield to interview General Motors dealer Paul Masse at his new Chevrolet dealership on Main Street.

Masse bought the dealership in May and spent the summer refurbishing it, even taking a sledgehammer to parts of it himself. The result is transformational. What was a dark and rundown shop is now bright and thoroughly modernized while keeping to the style of an old, family owned dealership.

There is no doubt that Wakefield has been blessed to have had such an investment in the lower end of Main Street. And if anyone in the historic town did not know what was going on over the summer months, Masse's opening party a couple of weekends ago surely left no doubt.

Some 800 people gathered inside and outside the dealership and service building to celebrate with food and drinks. And for 10 minutes the police department closed a short section of Main Street to allow a 2010 Chevy Camaro to blast by a couple of times.

And in a way, the image of that Camaro blasting past the crowd could serve as a metaphor for Masse himself. The man is a force of nature, a tornado of enthusiasm that carried Steve and I along as he showed us around his new dealership.

Nothing was too small to be commented on - the floors, the walls, the ceilings, the windows, the bathrooms, the painted lettering, what was new, what was old, who was new to the dealership, who was from the old dealership.

Masse, like his old friend Mike Flood at Flood Ford in East Greenwich and Narragansett and Flood Mazda in Wakefield, is a self-made man. Both started as lot-boys with Paul Bailey in North Kingstown and now own three dealerships apiece.

Both are presumably now wealthy men. But I do not think money is their primary motivation in the sense that I suspect it is more important as a means rather than an end - in the current instance, the means for Masse to transform the Wakefield dealership into an attractive and viable operation.

I am not saying money is irrelevant. Both men, after all, cut their teeth in sales and it takes a pretty hard head to be a successful car salesman let alone run a dealership let alone a string of them.

But I am reminded of the story about another self-made man, William Morris (aka Lord Nuffield), told by my step-grandfather who used to play golf with him at a course outside Oxford, England. Morris Motors Ltd. was a major British automobile manufacturer (the Minor and the Mini) through most of the 20th century.

Uncle Cyril, as my step-grandfather was known, was a banker with an acute sense of the value of money who was intrigued by Morris's apparent disregard for his personal wealth.

Rather, he used to say that Morris was consumed with his company, with making the most efficient use of his workforce and his factories to produce the best car for the best price. Morris was particularly proud of his technical abilities and used to claim that he could do any job on the factory floor as well if not better than the man doing it.

And Uncle Cyril was amazed by the story that Morris told of his bank manager calling him one day to inform him that he now had one million pounds (in the 1940s) in his current account and to recommend that he take most of it out and invest it!

So having spent an hour or so in the morning with an energetic businessman with a passion for the auto business, it was a quite a contrast to spend an equal amount of time with someone who could not be more different.

Indeed, 75-year old Bob Kimball, who lives just a few blocks from Masse's dealership, is a retired history teacher who decided the corporate life was not for him early in his career. So he went into education and taught at the Narragansett Junior and Senior High Schools for 35 years.

And where Mike Flood, whom I interviewed in February, and Paul Masse are bundles of energy who seem to be about to jump out of their skins, Kimball is as comfortable in his skin as a dog in front of a fire following a long walk.

But he is connected to both of them through his love of cars, in particular for a 1930 Ford Model A coupe which he bought in 1951, sold in 1961 and managed to buy back in 1988.

After looking over the car, we sat in his tranquil parlor overlooking the garden which runs down to a creek (indeed, the same creek that runs behind Masse's dealership), and he talked about his life, his love of teaching and his students many of whom he has remained in contact with over the years.

And there can be doubt about his passion for the 1930 coupe. Indeed, he said he still does not speak to a man who promised to sell it back to him but reneged on his promise. That was back in 1965.

After all these years?

"Oh," he said, holding his hand over his heart and momentarily at a loss for words. "Oh well, you know, my wife says I love this car more than I love her. I told her, yes, the car is number one and be glad you're number two because you could always drop to number three."

And he and Anne have been married for 47 years!

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

 Tags  Auto business Commentary Mike Flood Paul Masse

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