Celebrating a Half Century

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Celebrating a Half Century

"My dad always taught me to treat others with honesty, integrity, and trust and they will be lifelong customers." That’s what Bill Duckworth, Jr. says on his website, and that’s the philosophy that built Bill Duckworth Tire into a family automotive repair, tire and wheel business that has been serving and keeping customers in southeast Georgia happy for 50 years. To commemorate this impressive milestone, EIL asked Bill to share his recollections of those past five decades with us.

In October 1965, my father, Bill Sr., mother, Marcella, older sister, Marilyn, and I made the long ride from Bessemer, AL to Brunswick, GA, where my dad had an appointment to meet with Mr.

Dick Bradham about purchasing O.K. Tire Store on Norwich Street. I remember it was Halloween because we didn’t get into town until late Friday evening, and I remember seeing children out trick or treating. Dad met with Mr. Bradham the next morning. We had to be back in Alabama by Sunday night because my mother was a schoolteacher. My parents decided that Dad would remain in Brunswick to give him time to get a feel for the area and the business and decide if it was a good fit for our family, while my mother, Marilyn and I would go back home and return on Thanksgiving. Dad ended up buying the tire store and a 1965 blue and white Ford truck. We rented a home and Dad and I stayed and mom and Marilyn went back to Alabama to pack up and return when the school year ended.  

The store sold new tires, used tires, and recaps that we made in the two mold caps shop in the back of the store. I was 13 at the time and there wasn’t much that Dad would let me do around the shop except clean up and trim the rubber from the sides of the recaps as they came out of the molds, but it wasn’t long before Dad figured out that he could buy the recaps from a place in Jacksonville for just as much as he could make them. Dad hired Bill Pittman to do brake repairs and front end alignments. It was just the two of them in the shop, and me after school. Twice a week Dad would drive to Jacksonville early in the morning to pick up recaps and new tires so he could be back at the store when it opened up at 9 a.m. By the 1970s, we were selling more new tires than recaps so we started carrying the General Tire line. Before long, we needed more space and had to add a warehouse on the lot next to the store. 

In 1973, we changed the name of the business to Bill Duckworth Tire. Within the next three years, we had opened a second location on Glynn Avenue at the foot of the St. Simons Island causeway, and a third store in Jesup, with partner Herman Gordon (a business relationship that ended in the early 1990s) and were dealers for Michelin and Dayton Tire. Dad handled all the buying and pricing and was able to sell to the public at the right price. We continued to expand in the 1980s, adding a store in Hinesville and another on Altama Avenue.

In the 1990s, we closed the Glynn Ave. store and added a 6,000 sq. ft space and three more working bays to the store on Altama, making it our main store. My son Jamey Duckworth joined the business in 1991. By 1998 he was running the store on Norwich St. as he continues to do today.

After 2000, my dad began to retire. He had a white 1989 Jeep that he would drive up to the tire stores on Norwich and Altama and he’d sit in the showrooms like a customer. His health began to deteriorate, and in 2007, we lost him to Parkinson’s disease. My mother’s death followed in 2014.

I learned everything I know about the tire business from my father and much more about life from both parents. My dad’s values and policies are all still in place today, 50 years after he bought the store. He taught me to sell to each customer, do only what they need, do it at a fair price, and service it for them. That’s how we run our business to this day at all three locations! We’re all about service, performance, and customer satisfaction. We have state of the art equipment to be able to perform virtually any type of auto repair, and carry a wide variety of tires including Michelin, Uniroyal, and BFGoodrich. At Bill Duckworth Tire, we stand behind our service and product. We have to, it’s my name—and my father’s!  

Stop by 4975 Altama Ave. for the big 50th Anniversary Celebration (When you’re in the tire business, you don’t like to use the word “blowout!”) on November 6. There will be free barbeque and prize drawings from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. If you want a chance to win $500 toward a set of Michelin, BFGoodrich or Uniroyal tires, drop by the store to pick up your raffle ticket. You’ll receive 1 chance to win for every $75 invoice. For more information about services and products available at Bill Duckworth Tire, coupons, and more, visit billduckworthtire.com.