The Depression caused the bottom to drop out of
that venture and Fred became a mechanic, and thus laid a path for Mark
who went to work for Bronson Motors in Dishman in 1935. But apparently,
Fred and his wife Jennie, had instilled in their children the qualities
for success. For example, that same year Mark drove his brother Melvin
and his wife and first child down to Washtucna where Melvin had gotten
a job as a ranch foreman. They put all of Melvin's family possessions
into the baby crib lashed to the rumble seat of Mark's car. By the time Melvin retired he had amassed a 3,000 acre ranch that his sons still operate today.
What Melvin did with agriculture, Mark did with automotive.
Within a few years he had bought a service station on the corner of
Trent and Argonne and soon began
selling used cars. Shortly before WWII, he went to
Kenosha,Wisconsin and drove back a demonstrator model for his newly
acquired Nash franchise.
But Pearl Harbor blew Mark's plans out of the water. Fearing he
would be drafted and have to leave his young family to fend for
themselves, Mark sold his inventory and went to work for the the
Construction Corps on such projects as the building of the Kaiser plant
in Trentwood. When the war was over and the coast was clear, Mark
jumped back in and never looked back.
He reacquired the Nash franchise and added a Willey's
franchise and started Parkwater Motors at 5303 E. Trent. Before long,he
set up another lot at the corner of Park and Sprague called Hollenback
Motors. By 1960 he consolidated his operation to the Sprague location.
This was all at a time that the American car industry was
quickly changing. The big three corporations, Chrysler, Ford and GM,
had become dominant, forcing smaller car companies to adapt or
die. Nash and Hudson joined forces to form American Motors which
featured the country's first compact car, the Rambler. By the late 60's
the Rambler was put to pasture and AMC developed several models like
the Javelin, Gremlin and Pacer, and up until 1974 they continued to
produce the definitive Nash, the Ambassador.
Eventually, AMC was reduced to the Jeep line after Chrysler
bought it in 1987, and one might think Mark Hollenback would have gone
down with the ship. While he stayed on board Nash/AMC to the end,
Hollenback always had that quality for success his parents had
instilled and he never put all his eggs in one basket. During his
career he held franchises for Volkswagon, BMW, Renault, Peugeot and
most importantly Dodge. Who would have guessed when he bought the
franchise back in 1964 that Dodge would become the powerhouse it did in
the 90's.
Today, The Mark Hollenback Dishman Dodge Showroom is the jewel
of the Valley couplet with it's modern design and gleaming Dodge Rams
lined along the corridor's Park Road intersection. The other major
accomplishment Mark pulled off at the end of his career was to pressure
his oldest daughter Marti to give up her nursing career and take over
the reigns of his business.
Marti, who had a lot of administrative experience in the
medical field but cared no more about the auto industry than to be
"happy to have a car to drive," told me recently she reluctantly
honored her father's wishes as he approached the end of his life. To
her surprise, she found it relatively easy to run the Dodge dealership.
"Living up to Daddy's legacy, that is the challenge," she said,
" He liked people and people liked him. He had a lot of business
acumen."
Marti, who is involved in several civic organizations and is
the Washington representative for NADA, is a living testimony to her
father's acumen and integrity. After a long recent interview, she said
to me, " Don't make your story about me, make it about Dad."
