When Kevin Oswald’s father, Blaine, told him their business in downtown Idaho Falls couldn’t support two families, Kevin knew he had to find work elsewhere. When in 2004, Kevin had the opportunity to buy it for himself, he knew he had to jump on it.
Although Oswald Service & Repair no longer acts as a service station that fills up your gas, the service is still there. Service that Kevin and Renae Oswald take pride in, built on honesty and integrity.
Started in 1939 by Kevin’s grandfather, Oswald’s celebrates its 80th birthday this year in its 3rd generation of family ownership. And the tradition isn’t stopping there. Kevin and Renae’s son, Nick, currently works at Oswald and looks to take over the business one day.
“He’s seen us grow it, he understands the potential that’s here and he loves the work,” Renae said. “To be able to think that oswald legacy is going to continue. It really has meaning around it.”
Along with four generations of mechanics working at Oswald, each family mechanic has married a nurse, including Nick, whose wife currently attends Idaho State University to become a nurse.
Renae sees similarities between car repair and human repair. In both cases you’re fixing a problem.
“We’re both in the service industry,” said Renae. “I don’t really know why that has worked so well but it has.”
Renae’s work as a nurse gave Kevin more freedom to take risks with Oswald, knowing the income was coming from more than one place. One of those risks included opening another shop in Rexburg and they hope to add onto the existing shop in Idaho Falls in order to offer more services to the community.
“We have always tried to embody that idea of service,” said Renae. “Whether it’s pumping your gas, or going to get you to repair your car. What dad was able to give to us was a reputation, because Oswald's service has always been known for honesty and integrity.”
Even after they stopped pumping people’s gasoline at Oswald, Kevin would still go to a gas station with long time customers that never learned to pump their own gas.
“This lady would come by every week,” Kevin said on East Idaho Entrepreneurs podcast. “We’d hop in the car with her, we’d take her up to a gas station, we’d pump gas for her, bring her back and she would always make us a plate of cookies for doing that.”
East Idaho Entrepreneurs, a podcast started by Renae while looking for ways to market their automotive repair shop, interviews local business owners around the East Idaho area.
Started in Oct. 2018, the podcast has interviewed restaurant owners, moving companies, a guy who invented a way to clean public toilet seats and more.
“Sometimes business owners can be misinterpreted,” said Renae. “I think when we take time to get to know one another better it’s harder to villainize people. It was in an effort to share the stories to be inspired and also educate us and try to get to know our families better.”
A producer from the TV show Start Up emailed Renae through her podcast, looking for Idaho businesses to feature on their show. Renae pitched their business, Oswald Service and Repair and it got approved.
Host Gary Bredow established Start Up to interview businesses around the country, finding out how they’ve been successful. Bredow did this, partly to learn how to start his own business one day.
According to the Start Up website, Bredow said, “I believe that this is the age of the entrepreneur, and as job security has increasingly become a thing of the past, we have no choice but to become self-reliant. Small business is the foundation of growth in America, and it truly starts with one person, with one vision.”
Along with Oswald Service and Repair, Start Up filmed an episode on Divinia Water, another Idaho Falls business suggested by Renae.
“We are proud to be able to represent Idaho Falls and proud to be able to represent Idaho and we just hope that we make y’all proud,” said Renae. “We believe we’ve got a fun story to tell.”
The Oswald episode is scheduled to air on Nov. 24 at 1:30 p.m. on PBS.