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Sheppard dealership started with one little car.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

The letter came in 1971, when John Sheppard was serving a tour in Vietnam.

It was from his father, Harry Sheppard, asking for an answer to an important question: Did he want to take over the automobile dealership his father had started in Eugene, or would he pursue something else? Harry and his wife, Phyllis, had run the business for 20 years and were starting to think of slowing down.

It was a crucial decision for the young lieutenant, who frankly wanted to take a year off and do some traveling after completing military service. But he decided instead to join his father, and in that moment Sheppard Motors became a family business.

More than 30 years down the road, John Sheppard plans to keep it that way. Phil Speers, his niece's husband, has been with the company four years now and eventually will take the helm, although Sheppard said he has become too much a part of the business to ever walk away from it.

"I'm not leaving," he said. "There's too much of this that's me."

That sense of personal investment is far more important to Sheppard than any financial investment. As with many family businesses, it is the personal connection both to the employees and the customers that carries the most value for Sheppard and Speers.

"I...