PRINEVILLE, Ore. (AP) - Les Schwab, a cowboy-hatted icon of Oregon who turned a dilapidated tire shop he bought in 1952 with borrowed money into a regional empire, died Friday at age 89, his company said.

Schwab, who had been in poor health in recent months, was very much a self-made son of Oregon's High Desert. Funeral services will be private.

With his trademark hat and an ironclad policy that the customer rules, he built the run-down shop into a chain of 410 stores that did $1.6 billion in sales last year.

His tire shops with their red-and-yellow signs are fixtures in small communities, and some big ones, across the West.

The privately held company employs 7,000 people and sells 6 million truck and car tires annually. It adds about 20 new stores a year and pays for them in cash, Schwab said.

The company said family members will continue to run it.

"There will never be another Les," Phil Wick, chairman of Les Schwab Tire Centers, said in a statement. "He was a visionary, and all of us who worked with him will stay true to his vision of integrity, service and treating people right."

"They are known for their service and dealers from around the United States will travel to Les' stores to see how he does business," said Bob Ulrich, editor of the Modern Tire Dealer.

"Superb customer service is the key and Les just happens to be better at it than anyone else."

For me, I always appreciated their customer service...like going in and asking for a tire rotation and they would do it for free no questions asked.

This company did it right. A true Northwest original!

I read a newspaper article that was on a wall at the Les Schwab Tire Center we go to about how Les only took a $32,000 a year salary.

Great customer service and profit sharing for the people that work for him, makes for a great company.

Last time I was in a Les Schwab was just a few months ago. I was with a friend in his truck when he tore the sidewall of his tire down to the cords on a piece of angle iron. Since we were both helping a friend move, our pal immediately offered to pay for the damage.

The tires were under warranty, but they were a year or two old. The paperwork did not say anything specifically about silly accidents and parking goofs. He crossed his fingers, grabbed his credit card and we went to the shop on Columbia completely prepared to drop some money.

The gentleman who helped us had his arm in a sling, but still had a smile. He also provided better service than folks with two good arms. Even though it was busy, in a short 20 minutes, he had talked to us, keyed in a ton of information with one hand, and a technician had changed the tire. They didn't charge a dime.

This is not the first time I have been utterly floored by the folks at Les Schwab. I had a girlfriend years ago who had an unbelievable shudder develop in the front end of her Super Beetle. She would get up to 47 miles an hour and it felt like it would tear itself apart. Get up past 63, and no problem at all, but who the hell wants to go that fast knowing what it did a bit slower.

This went on for a couple weeks, so those numbers became ingrained in my memory. When she finally had the time, she took the VW to the experts. They kept her car overnight, claimed to have run her up past 47, pronounced it fubar, and offered to replace the front end for around the price of another Super Beetle.

Smartly, she drove up Powell for a second opinion. Since she had Schwab tires, they found the problem in a jiffy, rebalanced the wheels, and sent her on her way. Of course, it never shuddered again. No charge for that trip either. The people obviously love their jobs, take tremendous pride in their work, and stand behind everything they sell.

I am always quick to mention our local tire chain to anyone who believes that a higher standard is too much to ask. Les Schwab ran the kind of business that earns lifetime customers. I think America could have used the vision of a million entrepreneurs just like him.

Littlesongs...yes! This has been my experience. It really is so simple...treat your customer well, take care of the little things for free, and guess what, you've got a lifelong customer. Les was a genius!

Yep, Les Schwab had some business sense, unfortunately he eventually became a man behind the times. It is not my intent to trample on his grave, but to keep things in perspective, we don't really want people to copy Schwab's business sense 100%.

Towards the end of his life, his company had many a discrimination problems and lawsuits (toward women especially -- the gender Schwab belived belonged in the home -- not in the tire bay), also, he wasn't particularly green -- very needless wasteful of oil and unnesessary pollution.

But I do get all my tire work and brake work done at his shops -- even though I didn't always get free beef! Tip of the hat to mr schwab.

Skeptical-

Possibly now that Les has gone to that great tire center in the sky, those who are now coming into the business will infuse a different attitude towards women and look into better ways of needless waste.

When my wife and I were looking to expand our audio production company, my wife called our local Les Schwab center. She told them she was a voice talent and wanted to know who to contact to find out if she could do voice work for Schwab. We had been costumers for several years and were impressed.

Eventually she ended up getting a hold of Ben Tracy who had done the radio and TV ads for years. Barb sent him an audition cassette. (This was circa 1993) He told us he got the cassette but didn't have anything at the time. 6 months later he contacted Barb and asked if she would be interested in doing Schwab's "message on hold." Back then it was about 275 stores.

She did those recordings for about another 6 months. Ben finally called my wife and told her that Schwab had never used a woman's voice in any of their radio or TV commercials and that Barb would be the first.

It's been a great 10-12 year run for us and we are deeply appreciative of the constant work. So in some ways my wife help break, at least on the advertising side of things, the good old boy network.

"Les has gone to that great tire center in the sky"

If that's what Heaven is - man - I think I'll relax a bit.

Ideally, the newer mindset that will eliminate discrimination does not come with losing old school quality service.

I've never been happier with auto service than that provided by Les Schwab. Lee's Japanese Auto Clinic is damn close though!

Yes! Ben Tracy had been the voice of Les Schwab Tires since 1964! He was at KGRL Bend at the time as PD when Les Schwab came calling.

I believe the current voice is another Central Oregon alumni of KGRL, Corky Coreson.

On the local level, I voiced Les Schwab spots for KCYX. No doubt countless others did in other markets as well.

We ought to do a thread on longtime voices of local merchants/products . . .

Speaking of Schwab again, since his own two children have already passed away leaving nobody he groomed personally in charge, expect big changes in store for the company down the road. While I doubt they'd sell out to a national chain, (it still could happen) a number of changes will most certainly will happen to bring the company into the 21st century.

One thing for sure -- thinking of investing in Prineville properties? Don't. Own investment property in Prinville? Sell.

This thread got me thinking. I'm a former PDX-er, now living in a big sunbelt market. The South is supposed to be friendly, but customer service here is usually rude, clueless and self-absorbed.

This place could sure use a dash of Les Schwab's spirit.

Craig-

You are correct that Corky Coreson is the "Big Voice" for Schwab radio and TV along with Message on Hold. My wife records at his Milwaukie, Oregon Studios.

And as I was so proud to say once, in that thriving media market of Kelso/Longview, Washington:

"1420 Industrial Way and the Fred Meyer Shopping Center!"

It would bring a smile to my face if Les's company would expand to Nebraska. The last store I did business with was in Spokane. While never, EVER seeing people sprint out to my car as I pulled into the lot, I always received good service at Les Schwab. I will ALWAYS galdly drive across town to do business with someone who treats me right, instead of going across the street to someone who treats me like crap. Les Schwab Tires is rare in this day and age. They care about their customers. Whenever I live in an area with a Les Schwab, that's where I take my business.

Chris: Never knew until you mentioned about a year ago that it was your wife Barb that does the Standard TV & Appliance spots with you. Always thought "What a pleasant upbeat voice this woman has, a real standout, who is she?" Then I start hearing her on Les Schwab spots where she's kicked it up a notch. She sure can use her voice. She's dynamite!

Craig- Thanks for the kudos about Barb. When Ben Tracy was running the advertising ship he had Barb really amped up at times. Today she is still perky but not as much.

What's really cool is she and I do even more voice work that is non-broadcast. Kiosks, multimedia, message on hold and some rather unusual voice work. Beats working for a living.

Schwab and Standard TV have been great clients over the years for us and we are grateful to work for companies who are simply trying to do it right.