Greiten puts the brakes on service station career

Dec. 10 -- Story Hill residetn Richard Greiten, long-time owner of Greiten's Auto Service, retired from that job at the end of November..

Greiten sold the business at 5804 W. Bluemound Rd. to long-time colleague Kevin Burke. The two worked together for 31 years.

"Kevin will do a great job," Greiten said. "He's got great experience and is a great person."

Burke, in a separate interview, said he would retain the Greiten name on the business. He declined to give the purchase price.

Greiten started his car-servicing career in 1965, and moved to the Bluemound Rd. location in 1973. Amoco Oil owned the site at the time, but Greiten fought the oil giant and won -- twice.

He first resisted Amoco's efforts to force the station to stay open 24 hours a day.

The 24-hour model, Greiten said, meant "they'd make money and we wouldn't."

Greiten worked with then State Rep. Peter Bock (D-Milwaukee) to change state law so a station could not be required to be a 24-hour business.

Then there was a long, difficult, but ultimately successful battle to prevent the company from forcing Greiten to dismiss his staff and turn his business into a gas 'n food shop. Greiten sued, and, eventually, the oil giant decided it was just easier to sell the business to Greiten.

Greiten, who wanted to repair cars and not food, stopped selling even gasoline.

"We had the 'bury the pump' party," he said.

After 34 years of waiting on customers and fixing their cars, would he do it again?

Yup.

"I loved being with people, talking to people, dealing with people," he said.

Can his Story Hill neighbors pull up to his house for a quick oil change?

"Oh," he said, "absolutely not."