End of an era: Northeast Auto Body's 'Spike' Smith calls it a career

Smith, 65, sold the business at the start of the year to longtime right-hand man Nate Chase, 34, son of longtime local MWV NAPA businessman Neal Chase. A 15-year employee, Nate for the past few years has been assistant-in-training to Spike.

Unlike cars of old, which used to be made mostly of steel, cars today are mostly plastic, and trucks other than their frames are plastic and aluminum. Having had a bad back and bad knees, Smith said it was time, although he is hoping that his new set of knees will give him some fun times on the ski slopes — skiing is a passion in his family, as he is the uncle of two-time valley Olympian Leanne Smith.

Friends and family surprised him with a well-attended retirement party at Delaney’s Hole-in-the-Wall in North Conwayon Jan. 12.

It was a who’s-who in the local automotive business, as well as longtime customers who have relied on Smith for his straight-shooting way of doing business. They all saluted him for helping out not only them but also those whose pockets are not as deep.

Having grown up poor on Mechanic Street in North Conway, the second youngest of six children, the son of former Skimobile employee Bob Smith, Smith has never forgotten what it is like to be hard-up.

And while he doesn’t like to talk about the many favors he has done for those facing challenges, friends such as former North Conway NAPA parts store owner David Patch, 75, of Bartlett, note that is what makes Spike so beloved.

“David is a people person. He was a local boy who never has lost sight of where he came from,” Patch shared with the Sun about his longtime friend earlier this week.

“I can’t tell you how many people would come into that auto body shop with a car issue, telling him their (financial) problems and he would shake his head and say, ‘We’ll figure out something — bring it in.’ He probably doesn’t want anyone to know that, but I’m telling you, underneath that gruff exterior is a big heart. He did that often,” Patch said.

Patch recalled how a young man who had wrecked his then newly purchased Ford Ranger told him that because he didn’t have any insurance, he might just turn the damaged vehicle back to the bank that had loaned him the money to buy it.

“I told the young guy that this was a turning point in his life: He had a choice — either to walk away and get that reputation, or to do the right thing. He went and spoke to David (Spike), and he let the young man work nights at his shop, fixing the truck. It’s the kind of guy that David is,” related Patch.

Patch also shared how when Spike was about 19, Spike called Patch up to get advice because S. Jean Fernandez, then legendary president of North Conway Bank, and a man known for not suffering fools very kindly, had told young Smith he ought to go into the auto body business.

“Jean was a pretty good judge of character and he saw David to be an honest hardworking young man,” said Patch. “There was no ‘quit’ in David, and Jean took a chance.”

When asked about that leap of faith by Fernandez, Spike used a sports analogy:

“Jean threw me the football, giving me the loan to buy the business — and I ran with it,” he laughed.

He said that he had always worked hard in town, with his first job working at the Skimobile in North Conway, where his dad worked; and his second mowing lawns as a pre-teen and teenager with a push mower in his Mechanic Street neighborhood. He also shoveled driveways in winter.

“I shoveled the driveway at Stu Robinson’s apartment building when I was 12 or 13. He stopped me on the street one day and said he had been trying to catch up with me because he knew he owed me some money. He asked how many times I had shoveled his driveway and I told him I wasn’t sure — he said 29, and wrote me a check for $29! My mother had to tell me how to go to the bank to cash the check. I had $29! That was more money than I had ever had. I had always had hand-me-down pants, but that was the first time I bought myself a new pair of jeans,” Spike related.

His third job was working for Jesse E. Lyman pumping gas as a 14-year-old, where he got to listen to the stories told in the front room of the gas station by all of Lyman’s colleagues, including fellow gas station operators Bud Rowell and Sid Potter and yes, Fernandez, who was known to also join in on the gatherings.

(The late Lyman, known for his colorful banter, looking back on those gatherings and the telling of tall tales in his front office of the station, now Frontside Grind’s front room, once told this reporter that “Young man, there have been more deer slain on the floor of this service station on a Sunday morning than there are in the entire White Mountain National Forest!”)

After working for Lyman’s, Smith while still in high school started working for Bob Bray at Eastern Slope Auto Body, which was located where today’s State Farm Insurance is by the former Elks Club off Route 16 just south of the Conway scenic overlook.

It was a 50-cents-an-hour raise, and that was a lot back in those days so Smith took the job but remained on good terms with Lyman.

One night, when Smith was in the bank, depositing his paycheck, Fernandez came out of his corner office to tell him about how he knew of an opportunity to buy a local auto body shop.

“He said Eddie Garland was looking to opt out of his auto body shop to go into the incinerator business and that I ought to look into it. I was 19 so it took a while to sort out the paperwork, but I was 20 when we started Northeast Auto Body, opening in October 1977 at what is now Atlantic Pool Co., located just north of the North Conway Cemetery and next to the original site of Beef and Ski (now Thai Nakonping Restaurant),” said Spike.

He and Diane were married and raised their family, first building a home on Sunset Hill in North Conway and later in South Conway, where they currently reside and where they own 210 acres on Davis Hill.

They built their current Northeast Auto Body building in 1979 and made two more additions over the years. Spike also bought real estate, building structures that he has leased out to such abutting businesses as the former MWV NAPA building and the Scott Perkins Plumbing Building as well as Redstone Auto.

It was not all roses, as Spike says, meeting payroll and deadlines while riding the ups and downs of the economy — but it has been a good life, with customers returning the goodwill that he has shown them.

He credits his longtime loyal employees for their hard work, especially Herbert Cummings, now 75, who has worked at Northeast for him for 45 years and although he retired a few years back, continues to work a few days a week at the shop.

He also recognized Erik Walker, a 36-year Northeast employee who still works at the shop, which, by the way, is a four-time winner of The Conway Daily Sun’s “Best Auto Body Shop” in the newspaper’s “Best of the Valley” reader polls.

“Cars used to be made of steel; now they’re mostly made of plastic. There’s a lot more to it. Insurance companies have also changed their ways of doing appraisals and all. That’s where (new owner but longtime employee/manager assistant) Nathaniel Chase and the guys come in,” he said.

Over the years, Spike has restored maybe 20 Skimobile cars that once ferried skiers at Cranmore Mountain Resort from 1938-89, invented by local mechanic George Morton and lovingly painted and restored by the history-loving Smith and crew.

“My personal Skimobile car is a red one that is located in the lobby on loan to the New England Ski Museum’s Eastern Slope Branch,” said Smith.

Other prized projects over the years have included painting the Ford Model T snowmobile kit invented by Ossipee inventor Virgil T. White that was owned by S. Jean Fernandez for display at North Conway Bank’s then West Ossipee branch next to today’s Hobbs Tavern.

“We were working on it with no deadline — and then the bank called and wanted to make sure if was going to be ready for the grand opening of the branch that Thursday! We set it down on the white carpet that was supposed to look like snow at the display in the bank. Well, years later, when we removed it, there was paint on the white carpet from the painted skis in front — that’s how close that job was! The paint was still wet when we had set it down in the bank!” laughed Smith.

They have also done the old Ford Model Ts for the Conway Fire Station and Zeb’s General Store and the gold-leaf lettering in the past for local fire department engines.

Another was painting Steve Lemay of North Conway’s helicopter that the latter had made from a kit.

Spike is happy to say that through his and wife Diane’s hard work (she’s a teacher at Pine Tree School who has given her notice to retire at the end of the year) and more than a few wise real estate investments, a new chapter is beginning.

He’s still up early every day, maintaining his longtime schedule of stopping by what formerly was known as Twombly’s Market (now Mason Brook) for his coffee and jostling with fellow regulars while catching up on the latest gossip and news.

“I told my friend, lawyer Ken Cargill, that for the first time in 45 years, when I wake up at 2 in the morning, I can finally go back to sleep, not having to worry about payroll and jobs and deadlines and everything else.

“My doctor, Ray Rabideau, told me a few years ago that maybe I ought to start thinking about slowing down — I’ve been on blood pressure medication since I was 22 — and now the time is right,” said Smith in a recent interview at his new recreational garage that he built across from Eastern Propane in Center Conway.

“This is going to be my ‘Man Cave,’ where I can piddle around and work on projects. It also will keep me out of the house, otherwise I am sure my wife would divorce me,” laughed Smith.

He said they also look forward to spending time at their second home in northern New Hampshire and maybe doing a little traveling.

But mostly, Spike (who, by the way, despite repeated efforts by this reporter to find out how he acquired that nickname, would not reveal where that came from), says he is enjoying having the time to watch his grandsons’ hockey games at the Ham Arena (Tanner, 15, and cousin Michael, 10, are goalies) and being there when granddaughter Abigail, 14, stops by their South Conway home to go snowmobiling after school at Pine Tree.

In all, they have three grown children — David, 49, who works at Spectrum; Michael, 41, who works for the state of New Hampshire’s Department of Transportation; and Saralyn, 39, who works as an IT specialist for the SAU 9 school district.

Diane and Spike have five grandchildren (in addition to the aforementioned grandkids, there’s also Tristen, who is in the Air Force, and Ava, who attends Plymouth State University).

So much of life is based on treating others as you’d want to be treated — the proverbial “Golden Rule.” And that has been an axiom to live by for Spike, for customers and employees alike.

He says he misses the interactions with his employees and the public already, even though he is staying plenty busy. One example he gave about his many friendships with longtime customers took place his last week at the shop before retiring. Longtime customer and friend Sut Marshall made his usual stop of dropping off eggs from his nearby barn. “When he heard it was my last week, he went back out to the truck and brought me in another carton of eggs. Things like that,” said Spike.

Patch told the Sun: “David should be recognized so I am very happy the Sun is doing an article. Having started working under Jess Lyman, he is the last in the whole colorful gang of automotive characters … In addition to Jesse, the Bud Rowells, the Bob McGraws, Dick Glines … He was the youngest when he started pumping gas for Jesse, but he fit right in. He has been a very special person in the valley.”

And now, it will be up to Chase and Northeast Auto Body’s 10 hard-working employees to carry on the legacy.

“We’re very happy for Spike. And we’re jamming!” said Chase during a rare break in the busy shop’s daily schedule.

“I worked for David during a break in my schooling, and when I was going back to college at Plymouth State a few years ago, David when he heard of my plans said let’s have a talk,” recalled Nate.

“And now, the planets have aligned and David has retired, and I bought the business. His greatest lesson to me? To always take care of the customer. That’s the key to our business.”

As Bill Perry of MWV NAPA said, “David is an icon in the local automotive business. He has given so much back to the people of this valley. Nate (Chase) grew up in the auto business, and I am sure he is going to do great.”

In typical self-deprecating good humor, when told of the Sun’s plans to write him up, Smith said, “That’s fine, but whatever you do, just don’t build me up and all that!”

Some wise sage once said that for those who come from the school of hard knocks, there’s never a diploma, just a lifelong tuition that never stops.

David “Spike” Smith through hard work and integrity has been a lifelong student of that hard knocks school — and the rewards for his good deeds will continue to pay dividends

Happy retirement, Spike and Diane!

Now, one last try: just how did you get that nickname?