WORDS OF WISDOM


need to go into the radiator business.” How did that transition begin for him?


Frank Finger: Yeah, as horses died out and were not being used for farming anymore, and the automobile became more popular and more and more radiators were showing up in the blacksmith’s shop, it was just a normal transition. There were no lightbulbs going off. It was a necessity of the  with it.


Radiator Technicians at the shop in 1973.


Mark Taylor: It was a natural evolution.


Frank Finger: Absolutely.


Mark Taylor: He didn’t resist it. He was like, “Look, this is what we have to do to survive.” It was just a natural kind of occurrence.


Frank Finger: Which is a very good thing to remember today. As the market is changing, we in the radiator business have to take advantage of every single opportunity that comes down the road like with the  of that nature. When we start recognizing a change in the market, you want to be very alert and pay attention and move with it as far as you can as fast as you can. I have a saying, “If it ain’t broke, break it.” Because if you just stay with what you’ve been doing all along, you will not  opportunity. You want to keep your eyes wide open and move whatever opportunities that come along.


Bobby Duran: Frank, how did you get involved with the shop? You had told us these stories about being there since you were riding a tricycle in the shop. Were you doing anything else?


What was your entry into the business?


Frank Finger: to the shop, when I wanted to meet my father, I had to go out into the shop because that’s where he was 24/7, because he was always working. So when I wanted to play with my father or talk to him, I went to the radiator shop. From 3 years old until I graduated high school in the summers, I worked in the radiator shop. As a little kid, around 10 years old, he made me a little wooden bench and garden hose and he paid me 25 cents a radiator to rod out radiators. So from like 10 years old until I graduated high school, I was working part time in the radiator shop and that’s what I did.


After I graduated high school, my father came to me and said, Okay, Bo, I’m really getting old, and I’m tired. I’m going to make you a deal.” I said, “Okay, what’s that?” He said, “Either you take over the business, or I will sell the property and put you through college. So you make up your mind what you want to do.”


Since I grew up in the business, and I pretty much


Frank’s first old pickup truck that was painted white and decaled out for delivery from North Brunswick shop.


understood it pretty well, I  the business, because that was more or less a guarantee. If I went to college, I don’t know what I would end up doing. Anyway, I agreed with him, and I came into the business. And he says, “Fine, I’ll work with you for 4-5 years, and when I feel that you are secure and you know what you’re doing,” he said, “I’ll take off and go to Florida, and you go ahead and run the business. And you just send me whatever you can.” Of course, this was a very small business. I said, “Great.” So anyway, that’s what happened from that point on. In 1955, I graduated high school, and that’s when I went into the business with my father. And


January/February 2022| THE COOLING JOURNAL | 7


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