Gary Courtney

Gary Courtney once worked at General Motors {Body By Fisher}, located in Comstock. . Mr. Courtney's career was very exciting during his years at General Motors. He had to work long days. Every morning he would drive to General Motors on Sprinkle Road.

In an effort to find just the right location for their new stamping facility, GM looked at nearly 50 cities before narrowing the choice to Kalamazoo. At first it was called "Body by Fisher." The plant opened its doors in Kalamazoo in 1965. General Motors was a metal stamping plant that produced auto parts such as quarter panels, hoods, trunks, doors, dashboards, roofs, and a multitude of internal car parts for vehicles such as Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillaac. Have you ever wondered what the pool-like hole in the front of the GM plant is? It is for rain water runoff that comes from drains located on the flat roof of GM. Have you ever wondered how many people worked in this 25 acre building? At one time there were over 3,500 employees working at GM, according to Mr. Courtney.

Gary worked at GM from January 6, 1969 to October 1,1999. During his 31 year employment at GM, he worked a variety of jobs, including press operator, salvage repair man, material handling, quality control and more. What Mr. Courtney liked about his job was the wages and benefits it offered. What he liked least was the long hours of overtime he had to work over the years, which took time away from his family.

Gary pulled some very funny pranks on some of his fellow employees. Here is one of them. One day at break , everyone was in the break room. Gary placed a small sulfur stink ball on the floor and set it off. The odor was AWFUL. As the room filled with the smell of rotten eggs, the guys cleared out FAST.

Gary Courtney retired on October 1,1999. GM shut down in December 1999. GM did not explain why the plant shut down, other than it was a "corporate decision."