ABOVE: Brian and Brad Nickerson, with Jared Steuber, center, inside Nick’s Body Shop in Truman. The Nickersons are retiring and Steuber will be taking over the business.

TRUMAN– Brian and Brad Nickerson of Truman have been the faces behind Nick’s Body Shop in Truman for over 40 years. Now, the two have decided that it’s time to retire and their long-time employee, Jared Steuber, is taking over the business.

The brothers, born and raised in Truman, are both mechanically-minded and come from a family with a history of both automobiles and business.

Their grandparents had a restaurant and service station, Stan and Mary, which opened in 1936 just down the street from where their business now stands on Highway 15. By 1940, Stan took on a Studebaker franchise and sold the vehicles until they were discontinued in the 1960s. Their father, Russell also worked at the service station

“That was the start with grandpa and our dad,” Brad said. “I was always interested in cars and fixing them up when they were damaged.”

For several years after high school, Brad was working at Jim’s Body Shop in Truman and Brian was working at Truman Farmers Elevator.

“We had an uncle that asked us if we were going to work for someone or have our own and he pushed us and got that idea going that we should be doing it for ourselves,” Brad said.

“Then one night we were having a cocktail at the bar and we knew there was this lot that we could buy,” Brian said.

The brothers were 26 years old when they decided to start their own business and once the lot was secured, they started building in the winter and Nick’s Body Shop opened on March 7, 1983.

The name stems from their last name and as the story goes, both boys were called ‘Nick’ in school because no one could tell the identical twins apart.

Steuber, who’s been working at the shop for 22 years, said he’s received plenty of phone calls from people asking to speak to Nick.

Running a business with a family member can be tough and when asked if they’ve always gotten along, both brothers laughed. However a shared passion and trust between them has led to the business’s success.

At the heart of it, the shop handles collision work that often involves mechanical work. Over the years they’ve seen a lot of advancements in vehicles as many features, like the mirrors and cameras, are operated by computers.

“It’s an electronic world,” said Brian.

About 20 years after they started, an addition was put on which included a paint booth. Brad said about 50 percent of collision work is the paint job and that there’s a real art to what they do.

They started the business not only because they both had an interest in and knack for making repairs, but because they knew the work was needed. Auto body is a guaranteed business because of the accidents that inevitably happen.

“There’s never been a problem with keeping busy. There’s always work to do,” said Brad.

They serve not only Truman, but all of Martin County and beyond including Mapleton, Madelia, Winnebago and more.

“We’ve built ourselves up with trying to do quality repairs,” Brad said.

Brian added that word of mouth has been a big and successful advertiser for them.

They also just know a lot of people in the community from growing up there and being involved. They were both on the Truman Fire Department for many years and up until recently Brian served on the city council.

Despite having a successful business, the two, now 68 years old, felt like it was time to retire.

“We’re tired,” said Brad.

However, they have other interests and plan to stay busy. Brian leans toward motorcycles and Brad is big into drag racing.

And because the business is staying open, they can always pop in to answer a question or chat with customers.

“The goal was to try to work with Jared. We could have sold the building and they could have closed it up and it could have been whatever but we didn’t want that. It’s nice to keep a business going and our county and this area needs it,” said Brad.

For his part, Steuber shared that taking over the business was always something he was interested in.

“When I was hired by Brad, one question he asked was, ‘where do you see yourself in 10 years?’ And I looked him in the face and I said, ‘owning this place.’ It’s been 12 more years, but we got it done,” said Steuber.

He plans to change the name of the business to Steuber Collision Center.

It will take a while longer for all of the paper work to go through to make the transfer complete, but the Nickersons are having a retirement party this Friday, March 14 that starts with coffee and cookies available beginning at 9 a.m. and a lunch that will be offered from 11:30 to 1 p.m.

Looking back on four decades of business, the two share a lot of memories. They have saved newspaper clippings and photographs from their opening, a 20 year anniversary party and other events. The thing that sticks out to them the most is the people that they’ve served and they expressed gratefulness for all of the customers they’ve had over the years.

“It’s not just the customers, you make friends. You don’t forget about them, you see them in the grocery store or somewhere on the street,” said Brian.