For nearly four decades, Dean Dimick has been an essential presence in Craig — an open-hearted man with calloused hands who built a life and livelihood one radiator at a time.

At the end of June, Dimick will close the doors of Craig’s Auto Radiator Services Inc. and step into retirement. But the story of his work, and the way he lived his life, is more about showing up for family and community as opposed to providing Northwest Colorado with an essential service for vehicles.

Dimick moved to Craig from Vernal, Utah, in 1985 with his wife, Lisa. What began as a route with a potato chip company turned into the beginning of a business that would serve the Yampa Valley for 30 years.

“The people we rented from owned the radiator shop,” Dimick said. “After I’d run my chip route, I’d come down here and work part-time to work off our rent.”

He eventually went full time in 1989. In 1994, when the original owner decided to step away, Dimick bought the business and made it his own.

“My wife supported it. She said ‘Let’s give it a try, see what happens,'” he said. “I was nervous. There were times in the first five or six years I wasn’t sure we’d keep the doors open.”

Over time, business picked up, particularly due to the fact that local energy facilities began outsourcing their radiator repairs to Dimick’s shop. 

“When you start doing good work and treating people right, word of mouth helps,” Dimick said. “That is how more and more people started coming to the shop.”

His customers came from almost everywhere including Vernal, Rock Springs, Vail, and even Grand Junction for a service that most towns, and even larger cities like Denver, no longer offer. Dimick explained that at one point, there were 13 radiator shops on Colorado’s Western Slope. Today, he only knows of two that remain. 

Dimick’s success wasn’t just built on expertise, however. It was also built on trust and a deep dedication to each individual customer, no matter the time. 

“I remember being a kid and him getting a call on a holiday weekend from a couple broken down outside town,” said Jamie Coupe, who is Dimick’s oldest daughter. “He and my mom loaded up, towed their car here, and he worked all weekend to get them back on the road. They wrote a letter to the editor of the Craig Press that stayed taped to the side of the toolbox for years.”

Coupe, who works at Maybell Elementary, explained that the work ethic and compassion she saw in her father became a defining characteristic of her upbringing, as well as a trait that she now carries forward in her life. 

“He’d come in for dinner and then go right back out to the shop. He was usually out there before we got up in the morning,” she said. “Now, as an adult, I appreciate it so much. That dedication helped shape me and my sister.”

For years, the family lived in an apartment behind the shop and often the lines between family life and shop business blended into one. 

“I don’t feel like I missed out on family time,” Dimick said. “Weekends were for family, unless someone really needed something. And since we lived here, I’d pop in and check on the girls all the time. They never had to go to daycare.”

Coupe even spent a year working alongside her father in the shop when her children started school.

“I thought I’d be doing yard work, but he had me tearing apart radiators, putting them back together and painting them. I learned a lot,” she said. “A lot of people would come in and say, ‘You’re going to take over, right?’ And I’d say, ‘That’s a hard no. I like working with kids at the school.'”

Over the years, Dimick handled everything from everyday auto radiators to massive, industrial-sized units, some of which had more than 1,300 individual tubes. Many of the larger service jobs came from Trapper and 20 Mile mines as well as from oil coolers and agricultural equipment.

But after nearly 40 years in Craig and 30 years servicing radiators, Dimick is ready to step away into a more family-centric life. 

“I am looking forward to taking the grandkids fishing and enjoying the outdoors,” he said. “I’m getting older and this sort of work is hard on the body.”

As of now, there is no one to take over Auto Radiator Services Inc., though one individual has expressed interest. If that falls through, Dimick explained that customers in Northwest Colorado will have to travel to Montrose, Denver or Salt Lake City for similar work.

“I feel guilty leaving the community without this shop,” Dimick emotionally admitted. “But it’s time.”

Coupe said the community understands.

“People have the utmost respect for my father. I hear so many people say that they love Dean and Lisa and that they’d do anything for them and our family,'” she said. “But he deserves to retire.”

If there’s one message Dimick wants to leave behind, it’s a heartfelt gratitude for the support of the community, as well as friends and family, throughout the duration of the business. 

“We couldn’t have done it without you,” he said. 

And, if there’s one lesson Coupe takes with her, it’s the importance of “loyalty, hard work and respect.”

“Those are the things he taught us and the things that we and his community will carry forward,” she said.