![]() ![]() “My grandfather was a self-made businessman. Joe remains humbled by his family’s history and the hard work and dedication that kept R.I. “I feel that people should have skin in the game.” “My father drove it into my head-you can have a business that’s 106 years old and run it into the ground in weeks or even days,” Joe says. Joe recently sponsored three of his most trusted senior team members for NADA’s Academy program and plans to groom all of them to be future dealership leaders. We talk about the things that she’s doing.” in psychology and when we get together, we don’t talk about business. But we’d always be talking about the business and things would get heated,” he says. “When I was younger, my parents and I got together all the time for dinner at home or out at a restaurant. Both of his children have their own careers, which they are passionate about. While Joe is not looking to retire, the 63-year-old is considering the future leadership of Suresky & Sons and weighing his options. Joe has undertaken a multi-million remodel of the facility and recently broke ground on brand-new 38,000-square-foot Hyundai store. Today, Suresky & Sons sells and services Chrysler, Dodge, Genesis, Hyundai, Jeep, and Ram cars and trucks out of their dealership at 2 Hatfield Lane in Goshen. Joe worked in just about every part of the dealership, taking over as president in 2009. “When I was 12 years old, I was washing cars,” he says with a laugh. Joe joined the family business in 1982 after graduating from college, although, like most children raised in a dealership family, he began working at the business long before that. “She is a tough and feisty person, was really instrumental in moving our business in a forward direction,” Joe says of his mother, who is now in her 90s and living Florida. When Harold got sick in the mid-1970s, Helen took over, standing up to anyone who questioned whether she could run the business by herself, including a parts manager who had been there for 35 years. In the 1970s, Harold added Dodge cars and trucks to his Chrysler franchise and ran the business with his wife, Helen, a former schoolteacher from the Bronx. When Ike died in 1960, Harold took over the business. Ike, like many auto dealers at the time, had to pivot, depending on sales of parts, accessories, and service and repair to keep his business afloat.Īfter serving in the military during the war, Ike’s son Harold entered the family business and the dealership moved to 224 West Main St. Ike’s upward trajectory was stalled by the outbreak of World War II, when auto plants were converted to make tanks, planes and other military equipment, so there were no cars to sell. to become a DeSoto dealer and also acquired a Plymouth dealership. By the 1930s, he was tapped by the Chrysler Corp. and had his parts store at 164 West Main. Ike soon built a garage at 150 West Main St. “He would get the cars off the train and sell them one at a time,” Joe says. When the train would stop at the Erie Freight Depot, anyone who had the money to buy a car, including Ike, could do so right then and there. The town of Goshen happened to be on the Erie Railroad. ![]() But he soon set his sights on expanding his business and selling the cars themselves.īefore the era of franchise dealers, trains would come through town carrying cars, including Hupmobile, Durant, Nash, Pierce-Arrow, Whippet and Oldsmobile models. Fascinated by the newest fad-the automobile-Ike started his own business selling car parts and accessories, including tires, batteries, belts and motor oil in 1916. Ike Suresky was born in Warwick, N.Y., in 1893, and as a young man made his way to Goshen-county seat for Orange County, N.Y. “My father said come home sometimes from work, and say, ‘We made the money, honey,’” says Joseph Suresky, Ike’s grandson and the third generation to own R.I. Raymond “Ike” Suresky knew how to get a warm welcome from his family when he came home from a long day of selling Oldsmobiles, Plymouths, Chryslers and other automobiles in Goshen, N.Y. ![]()
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