Located right on Route 1, Pawcatuck Auto Body sees hundreds if not thousands of people drive by its gravel driveway every day. And while the humble sign along the road might not grab a driver’s attention like the giant lit signs of chain garages, what certainly will are the dozens of cars of all makes and models lining the sides of the property, all waiting to be repaired.
Any driver observant enough to monitor these cars would notice that the auto lineup changes from day to day. Why so much business for a relatively small, family-owned shop? There is more than one answer to that question, but one thing is clear: Undying local support is a major reason why Pawcatuck Auto Body has done something many small businesses don’t—turn 50 years old.
Pawcatuck Auto Body was first opened on Jan. 1, 1958, when two young, yet eager apprentices, Erwin and Gus Dessaules Jr. first began their careers. But the story behind the business goes back much further.
Born and raised in Germany, Gus Dessaules Sr. began his lifelong career when he was just a teenager, spending four years away from home apprenticed as a schlosser, a combination metal worker/locksmith/blacksmith. After he was deemed proficient by his superiors, Gus followed his dreams like so many Europeans at the time did, and crossed the Atlantic to America in 1926.
Initially finding work with a wrought-iron gate manufacturer in New York, it wasn’t long before Gus found much more appealing work in auto body repair. Gus Sr. stayed in the New York area for more than 20 years until he fell in love with a small Connecticut town, and moved his family to Stonington Borough in 1950. He had found work with the John Hess Studebaker Company. Within two years he bought a house in Pawcatuck where he continued his body work career with the Westerly-based John R. Ford Company.
While Gus Sr. had already achieved much as a foreigner in a new land, his eldest son, Erwin, will be the first to tell you that it wasn’t until he opened up Pawcatuck Auto Body in 1958 did things truly come full circle.
“Well, this was Pop’s dream, having a shop of his own,” Erwin explained. “When I got out of the Army he asked me what I was going to do, and I told him I was going to go back to work at the John R. Ford Company with him and he said, ‘If you’re going to work in this business, you can’t work for someone else your whole life.’ And right then and there it was decided that we’d open up the shop.”
Construction began in early 1957 and on Oct. 31, Halloween day, the keys to the shop were handed over to Gus Sr. who, after finishing the required paperwork, opened up Pawcatuck Auto Body on Jan. 1, 1958. As Gus Jr. explained, it wasn’t long before it was evident that it would become a family business.
“I graduated high school in ‘58, and the bus left me off right there in front of the shop,” Gus Jr. said, pointing out to Route 1. “And Pop asked me, ‘So, did you graduate?’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he asked me, ‘So what are you going to do now?’ and I said, ‘I’m going down to the beach,’ and he said, ‘No you’re not, get in here and give us a hand.’ And I’ve been here ever since.”
Just as he had done in Germany, Erwin and Gus Jr. were apprenticed under their father until they too had mastered their trade. After close to 60 years of metalworking, it wasn’t until 1978 at the age of 75 did Gus Sr. finally retire, handing over the business to his sons who had learned not only a trade, but a way of life.
“Pop always demanded that you repair instead of buying new,” Gus Jr. said. “For him it went back to the days of the Depression when you really couldn’t go around buying new things all the time; you had to fix what you had. And it may mean more work, but it also meant you saved the customer some money, so if it could possibly be fixed, Pop would fix it.”
This work ethic along with the mastery of “moving metal,” as Gus Jr. describes it, earned Pawcatuck Auto Body a reputation that continues to bring in customers to this day. It’s not uncommon to see Stonington Police vehicles and local fire department and other emergency vehicles being repaired by the Dessauleses. Now however, with Erwin nearly retired (though you wouldn’t be able to tell as he is still at the shop every day) and Gus Jr. approaching 70, the shop is in the process of being passed on yet again to Gus Jr.’s two sons, Gus III and Kurt, who are currently apprenticed.
“We were always in and around the shop, but [Gus Jr.] gave us a choice,” Kurt explained. “We both went our separate ways at first, but now look, we both ended up here. So is it in the blood? I don’t know. Part of it is certainly being able to see a finished product. You start to re-create something, and when you’re done you get to step back and see what you’ve accomplished. And you know you just made another customer happy.”
Gus Jr. laughed as he explained all the changes that have occurred since the shop opened up, not the least of which is the type of cars the three generations have learned to work on.
“Pop always talked about working on Cadillacs and Packards, and for Erwin and I it was always Fords and Chevys, and now Gus and Kurt talk about Hondas and Toyotas,” Gus Jr. said. “Everything is so different now. We used to be concerned mostly with welding and molding metal, and now everything is fiberglass and a lot of it is patchwork and pop rivets.”
Yet all four Dessualeses agreed that the one thing that hasn’t changed is the community support.
“Almost all of their [the customers’] families have been coming to us since the early days,” Erwin explained. “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone come in and say that we fixed his grandfather’s car and his father would always come to us. The loyalty is great in town.”
“More so than it’s a business, it’s a bond with the community,” Gus Jr. added. “People need help, they need their cars, and we’re happy to be able to make sure they do. We’ve never looked at this as a way to make money—it’s always been a service that we’re providing to the town.”