By Annika Hauer, For the Reporter
“I liked to tinker from a young age,” said Brian Carlson, recent retiree of Mathewson Automotive and Tire, located on Rainier Avenue. “I had a gasoline engine of a lawnmower that I’d take apart and put back together.” When Carlson attended Renton High School in the early 70s, he took a shop class and his teacher Bernie Moskowitz got him into the automotive world, connecting him with Mathewsons, which has been open in Renton since 1933.
“It was an eye-opener,” Carlson said about starting the job. At first he pumped gas, making $1.25 an hour.
“When I got in there,” Carlson said, “there were carburetors, and then it went to electronic ignition…then you got fuel injection, and now you’ve got computers that run just about everything in a car. So it was a learning experience all along the way.”
Carlson took a vocational program at Renton Technical College after high school, and throughout working at Mathewsons, he also took multiple training courses and classes on new technology coming in. His education grew over the 50 years he worked in the shop; this year, before he retired, he was a full technician for cars and trucks.
However, Carlson’s pathway towards becoming a technician is becoming less common, as there is currently a decline in the automotive trade. “We’re having a tremendous problem to find hands-on workers,” said Josh Colman, current owner of Mathewsons.
Carlson also spoke on this. “This automotive business, they should put it back in high schools.” Currently, there are no automotive or car mechanic classes offered at any Renton high school. “It’s hard to get people to take over with what I was doing. We can’t even get new people to come in,” he said. “Somebody’s got to take over this business, because if they don’t do something, there’s going to be a dying breed. They’re not going to have anybody to work on vehicles.”
While working at Mathewsons, Carlson got married, raised two kids, and was able to buy a house. He was never laid off, even during the pandemic. He is grateful for this job, and especially the three owners he’s been under – the original Mathewsons (until the 90s), Brent Kranz (until 2013), and now Colman. “All three of my bosses have been really good,” said Carlson. “There’s not that many people I don’t think that can say that.”
“I miss…they were almost like another family, down there.” Carlson said. “I was with them ten hours a day…but it was just time to retire.”
Colman has known Carlson for 40 years, and worked with him for ten. Since Carlson retired, Colman says the shop has been kind of quiet without him.
“He’s very talkative, very opinionated, has a lot of things to say all the time,” Colman said. Growing up in Renton, people Carlson knew would come by the shop just to say hi.
“He would go the extra step,” said Colman. “An employee going outside of being an employee is good for everybody that worked here…He has been a mentor to lots of individuals. Some that he worked with and helped train have gone on to start their own businesses around the state.”
As for working with the team, Colman says it’s different in the shop without Carlson. “The camaraderie is a click-click kind of thing, but now we’re missing a tooth in a gear. So there’s a space in the day.”
