Frank Steinberg

What can I say, he is my Dad. So when I was little he was my hero, he taught me to fish, to play mumblty-peg, took me camping, he was my hero. Then I got older and he was "the pain in my ass", did not know much, told me no, told me if I came home with a motorcycle my bags would be on the front porch, he meant it. I left home and lived on the road shortly after graduating high school. I came home after a few months and was only in the house an hour before my Mom was taking my clothes out of my back pack as quick as I was putting them in. I do not think Dad and I spoke to each other for a month. Must have been hard on my Mom. The I came home again, went to school for a bit, worked in a truck shop and then a car shop and then my Dad and Uncle asked me why didn't I start my own business. So with my Dad's help, actually I helped him, we extended their two bay garage and put in a lot of power and off I went. Dad taught me how to find horsepower in a tune-up, how to "bump" metal and paint a car, he dropped text books off and said "study these" he became my best friend. He still was my Dad he knew what I would learn, that being my Dad was more important than always being my best friend. It was nice I learned that he was my best friend too. Frank, got out of the Navy, got married and brought my Mom home to the farm. He decided he wanted more and using the GI bill went to Spring Gardens Institute. Back then it was not usual for someone to go to a technical institute to be a "mechanic" but Dad wanted to be more than that. That he already was. he did become more - safety and maintenance programs designed by him for the companies he worked for became industry standards, testing and schooling programs for techs he designed were adopted by the industry (a funny aside, shortly after Dad came to work for me full time a guy running the county Vo-tech program for diesel mechanics came into the shop and saw my Dad. He had worked for and been trained by my Dad back in the day. He wanted Dad to work for him in the school - the school came back and said that since Dad had not graduated from an accredited college, (way back when Dad went it was not, it became so in 1969) The guy told the school - you have to understand, he taught me and the program we are teaching the kids is his. They said no, they did offer him a teacher's aid job. Dad said no so I got to "keep" him!) It was not unusual as I grew up to have engineers from Mack Truck, Cummings Engine, White Motors, Bosch... to call my Dad up to "talk". I was lucky to have him as my Dad and Cloverleaf was more than lucky to have him with us. I will always miss him