Whitefish lost a trusted friend when Howard Spain died on Sept. 13. He was 48 years old.

Community members say they’ll miss the big man with jet-black hair and a warm smile, better known as Howie of Howie's Tire and Alignment on U.S. 93 South. They said Spain treated customers like family and was an honest and skilled mechanic.

His daughter, Maurissa Spain, said that at first, some people may have assumed that Howie might be a little ornery since he was a bigger guy and seemed to have a tough shell.

“Then, once they got to know him, they’d see he was just really cool,” she said. “A person worth getting to know, for sure.”

Howie, like his parents and grandparents, grew up in Kalispell, and his desire to be a mechanic was evident at an early age.

“My grandpa used to find car parts in his dresser when he was little,” said Maurissa, who now runs the popular business. ”The clothes would be on the floor and the car parts would be in the dresser.”

Spain’s skill as a mechanic was matched only by his genuine, caring spirit. Maurissa said her father would do anything for his customers, including dropping them off at work if they didn’t have a ride.

His close ties to his grandmother helped make him a favorite among the older women in town who would sometimes come to Howie’s just to chat with him in the waiting area. One of the women said that since Howie would not answer the shop telephone, he brought the community together because folks had to come to the shop to talk to him.

“He loved his locals,” Maurissa said. “A lot of people say he knew them by their name and remembered everything about all the things he’d done to their car.”

Because of his excellent memory, he didn’t feel the need to write details in his appointment book and would often merely scribble down a customer’s name.

“So all of us are trying to navigate his schedule book and we have no idea what any of it means because he knew, but none of us know,” she said.

In addition to being genuine and skilled, Spain was dedicated to his customers. He would be at the shop working from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“I would say he would work six days a week my whole life, at least. He wouldn’t consider the weekends working, but he was working,” Maurissa said. “And I keep finding side jobs he has ongoing.”

When she went to her father’s house recently, she found a car in pieces that he was working on for someone. Another customer came to the shop to retrieve her truck that Howie was repairing, on the side.

HE WAS BORN to work on cars and eventually made his dream of being a business owner come true. In 2008, when he heard that Don Carlson of Carlson’s Alignment might be retiring, he visited the shop.

“Howie was a young man looking for a new road to go down. He wanted to own a business by himself,” recalled Don Carlson, longtime Whitefish resident and business owner. “Howie came through the front door and approached me. After talking to him, he impressed me so much, I wound up selling it to him.

“We put together a deal with the help of his mother, and one of the contingent parts of the deal was that I would work for him for a year,” Carlson said.

Carlson admitted to having concerns at the time about a "grumpy old man with old technologies” working with a young man who knew all the new ways of doing things, but said they never had an argument.

“We developed such a relationship of respect and love for one another that I worked for him for six more years,” Carlson said. “We developed a relationship that was like hand in glove.”

Maurissa said theirs was like a father/son relationship, made even more valuable since Spain’s father died when he was very young.

“Everybody loved Howie. I loved him as a son,” Carlson said. “He was just a great young man,”

While working with Carlson, Spain began to see his customers as family, too.

“He’s just one of those guys you couldn't help but fall in love with,” Carlson added. “The way he approached people, he always had a smile, he was very positive. He knew about the tire business; he knew about the alignment business. He was one heck of a technician.”

Spain tended to his successful shop by doing good work, being honest with people and charging reasonable rates. Maurissa said that having his own shop helped him harness his abilities and it was what he wanted, even though the job involved a lot of stress.

“He carried so much on his shoulders,” Maurissa said. “I never understood the magnitude until now. I’d observed his behavior at work but never grasped the amount of stress that he had.”

THE SPAIN family suffered a tragedy 13 years ago when their son, Kaiden, died. During that difficult time, Spain found solace in working at the shop. Maurissa said Whitefish welcomed Spain with open arms when he started his business and being there had always given him comfort.

“We've been through the wringer this lifetime,” Maurissa noted. “When my brother died, my dad was here [at the shop] a lot… It is distracting here because everybody is so nice.”

Now, Maurissa is feeling that solace at the shop as she steps into some big shoes at Howie’s Tire and Alignment. Just weeks ago, she was working out of town as a medical laboratory scientist, and today she is navigating the workings of a busy automotive shop.

“It feels good to be here, I guess, I don't know how to explain it, in this horrible time,” she said. “Just to hear everybody saying how much they loved him, it makes you feel a lot better.”

As a child, Maurissa would come to the shop and watch her father work.

“I used to sit on a little stool when I was little. He never made me do anything, just be there with him,” she said. “He felt really strongly about me becoming my own person. He never wanted to put this on me, to feel obligated to do this.”

While Maurissa found health care very rewarding, she has yet to give her career change a second thought. After spending time with her father in the hospital, she knew that running the shop was definitely what she wanted to do.

John Swartzenberger of Swartzenberger Auto on the southside of Kalispell and his family have taken Maurissa under their wing and have offered support and guidance. John Sr. was like a brother to Spain.

“Dad used to go work at their shop for hours after work and just hang out – they were his second family,” Maurissa said of the Swartzenbergers. “I am eternally grateful for this family. They are great people.”

Maurissa mentioned that there have been a few times lately when she believed her dad was sending her signs. Lights have flickered and things have gone awry in the shop.

“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” she said. “I think he’s helping me. Everything feels like it is falling into place.”