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November 28, 1955: Reno Righetti's first day at work for Holt Bros. 

Sixty years later Reno still comes to work at Holt of California; A remarkable record from a remarkable man. Holt of California is a much larger organization than the company Reno went to work for sixty years ago, so if you have not had the pleasure to work with him; let me introduce you to Reno.

On his first day at work, Reno reported to Holt Bros.’ main location on Aurora Street in Stockton. This was a few years before the current store was opened on Charter Way. Entering the dealership as a trainee mechanic, Reno started rebuilding starters, water pumps, cylinder heads, and magnetos; Most of these items we get as Cat Reman today, but were rebuilt at the dealership back in the day. It was the training ground to show mechanical aptitude, speed, and team work. Reno did very well as a trainee and went into the main shop and later into a service truck working on all the Caterpillar equipment existing at the time. He spent many hours working on the equipment that built the dams that keep us in water today: Camanche, San Luis, and Don Pedro were all built in that era. The hours were long; they would work until 3pm or so in the shops and then head up to the dams after the machines were shut down to service them and worked well into the night, every night. The era was one of no politically correct talk and very smoky diesel engines; Reno remembers some 641 scrapers that smoked so bad you couldn’t see anything around but smoke.

In the early 1960s Caterpillar introduced their first on-highway truck engine, the 1673. The engine turned out to need a lot of mechanical help and Reno was there to begin a long career associated with trucks. Over the years Reno continued to work on all types of Cat equipment and as the population of Cat on-highway engines grew he became dedicated to the truck business. In the mid-80s, he became the Truck Engine Service Manager for the Stockton Truck Shop. The unique part of the truck engine business is the variety of customers, as they come from all across North America and many need service while in our territory. This exposure to such a range of customers proved that Reno’s talents were not just mechanical, but that he has superb people skills. Over the years he has developed a loyal customer following. I know many truckers based in other parts of the country that only had their truck serviced by Reno. Those truckers would tell their friends that if they needed help to go see Reno in Stockton, California. They all said you can trust Reno and he will treat you fairly. I cannot think of a better compliment.

Reno is the example I try to live up to for outstanding customer satisfaction. He is patient when customers and employees are ranting, he explains technical problems to non-technicians in a manner that is understandable, he is in early and stays late to ensure adequate follow-up for each person, and he always looks out for the other person’s interests. On his original employment application he indicated that he spoke Italian and, while he may not have used his Italian much, I have seen him communicate with people that speak minimal English and/or have accents heavy in Hindi, Spanish, Russian or south of the Mason Dixon line. They always come back to Reno, because they know he will take the time to get their problems fixed and get them back on the road.

Reno congratulations on sixty years of outstanding customer service and thank you for setting such a great example living our core values.

~ Ken Monroe
President
Holt of California

Read even more about Reno Righetti on Recordnet.com