Gurley Motors celebrate 75 years in business
Owner says they put their employees first

Second in a two part series

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

Tim Stoehr, regional sale manager for Ford, gives a plaque to Pat and Steve Gurley for 75 years of operation as a Ford dealership. [Photo by Becky Apel]

GALLUP — At Gurley Motor Company, customers do not come first.

And that may be one of the reasons why the company, celebrating its 75th year of operation as the state's oldest Ford dealership, is still around.

Pat Gurley, the company's president, touched upon this philosophy during a brief presentation last week in his office when he received a plaque from regional Ford representatives praising the company for its longevity.

"At Gurley, it's our employees who come first," Gurley said, adding that this is a policy that goes back to the days when his father, the late C. E. Gurley, ran the business.

By putting employees first and making sure that the work environment is conducive to employee moral, the company created a workforce that is happy and one that wants to satisfy the company's customers, he said.

So a happy work place results in happy customers, and happy customers is what it's all about.

The company currently has 110 employees called "family" by Gurley many of whom have been with the company for 20 or more years. There are even a number who have been there for more than 30 years with no plans to retire.

One of these is Bucky Stansberry, who now heads the company's parts department and has been with Gurley for 38 years and cannot imagine the day when he steps down.

Why would you want to give up a job, he said, where the bosses "give you the responsibility and leeway to run your department as you see fit within their guidelines."

For Gurley, this relationship between employee and boss is almost sacred.

"I can't remember ever yelling at an employee," he said, and Stansberry agreed, saying that Gurley is not one to yell, although there have been a few times when it's obvious that he is upset because one can see "the big vein in his neck getting red."

Getting a job with Gurley is almost akin to getting a guarantee of a job for life.

Steve Gurley, Pat's son and the company's general manager, said there have only been a few firings over the years, and usually these came after a several warnings and talks about how to shape up and get in line with the company's philosophy.

It is this philosophy that has guided the company year after profitable year; even in those few years when the company has not posted a profit, either because of a downswing in the economy or changing times.

And when times change, Steve Gurley said, the "family" gets together and makes the changes that are necessary to get the company profitable again.

This philosophy even guides the company's decision on who will be the top boss.

So far, that has been a member of the Gurley family. Although the company is now in its third generation and the fourth generation Steve's son, John Patrick is attending college getting a business degree it is not written in stone that he is the heir apparent, Steve Gurley said.

Both Pat and Steve Gurley remember working in the company at a variety of jobs in order to get the experience needed to run the multi-million dollar operation, and Steve Gurley said if his son really wants to run the company one day, he will expect him to come back and do the same thing.

And then, only after years of tutelage by his father and grandfather, will the day come when the two will make a decision about whether to put the fate of the company in his hands.

"He's going to have to work for it," said Pat Gurley, "and he won't get it until he has proven he is up to the task of taking care of our employees."

Because, as he said, when it comes to employees, they come first, even over kin.