The evolution of Seversin's Service Center

When Mike Seversin was in eighth grade, he couldn't wait to work around the service station that his dad, Tom, had opened that year.

He was paid 35 cents an hour to pump gas and do janitorial jobs, tire work and oil changes, which back then included cleaning the windows and vacuuming the vehicles.

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"I just wanted to be there. I would have worked for free," said Seversin, who now runs his own business, Seversin's Service Center at 3401 Milwaukee St. "That's how I started. Gas was 38 cents a gallon. I still remember it."

Seversin, the oldest of five children, worked at his dad's Sunoco station on Northport Drive, which the elder Seversin opened in April 1973. Seversin remembers that time well because a few days later, Madison was hit with an unseasonable blizzard that dumped a foot of snow, and Madison students got a rare day off from school.

"I got to hang out there all day," said Seversin, who eventually turned his love for the business into a career that has gone beyond his father's dreams.

The station had three service bays and only full-service gasoline in the days before self-service islands. It was next to a PDQ that didn't sell gas.

Then in 1976, Seversin's dad purchased a second place, which became a Union 76 station on Washington Avenue at McCormick Avenue. At the same time, he switched brands and the Northport shop also became a Union 76. Seversin was a junior in high school and helped run the shops � called Seversin's East and Seversin's North � during the summer and after graduation from East High School in 1977.

He continued working during the summers for his dad while he attended Madison Area Technical College for two years. He earned a degree in auto mechanics and afterward started working full time for his dad, switching between the two shops about every six months.

In 1982, PDQ bought the building where Tom Seversin had been running his Northport station. He continued renting from PDQ while Mike Seversin looked for a place to start out on his own.

In 1982, he found a place at Milwaukee Street and Fair Oaks Avenue that was being used by Care Cabs to service and fuel its vehicles. He fixed up the shop, remodeling the front room and furnishing the two service bays with extra equipment he purchased from his father after he closed his shop on Northport.

He worked seven days a week but got help from his wife, Lisa, whom he married in 1982. She helped with the books and did payroll, counted money and made deposits.

In 1985, they had a daughter, Stefanie, now 20, and two years later welcomed Ryan, now 18 and a recent graduate of La Follette High School.

Seversin made his first big move in 1994 by tearing down his station and building one twice as big. He added groceries and other convenience items and obtained a liquor license so he could sell beer.

Seversin's business, located at a busy intersection, is now selling about four times as much gasoline as when he started. He added another service bay and has three technicians working for him.

When his children were old enough, they started to help at the shop. Stefanie has worked as a cashier. She now does filing and paperwork while studying early-childhood care at MATC and working as an assistant preschool teacher alongside her mom.

Ryan started mowing the lawn when he was 12, ran errands and swept. About a year ago, he started cashiering. He also does yard work and snow removal. He plans to attend MATC and may take auto-body classes.

Lisa Seversin has reduced her role over the years but still mows the grass occasionally, plants flowers in the spring and puts up holiday decorations. In the past, Seversin's younger brother, Scott, also has done mechanical work at the shop.

Another family member jumped into the business in 2002. Seversin was in need of a good manager and hired his youngest sister, Lynn Riley. She left her social work career for a while and worked full time at the shop, finding her experience working with people to be helpful on the job. Eventually, Riley reduced her hours and returned part time to social work.

"The biggest thing was hiring someone I could trust," said Seversin, 46, who also has two other sisters, Marybeth and Julie.

After 10 years of trying, Seversin was able to buy 1.6 acres of land along Fair Oaks between Milwaukee and Thorp streets behind Seversin's Service Center. Construction started on Thorp Terrace, a three-story, 20-unit apartment building, in September 2004.

The apartment building was completed in April. An automatic car wash, utility shed and more parking were added to the service center.

Plans call for having Lisa Seversin manage the apartment building with Stefanie and Ryan's help. Stefanie, who is now the resident manager, Ryan and Seversin's parents, Tom and Connie, also will live in an apartment on each floor.

Seversin's shop, which is plastered with pictures of Corvairs and other items like a wooden coat rack topped by a carved Corvair and a model of the car, shows the passion that ties members of the Seversin family together. Seversin and his siblings grew up riding in the family's Chevrolet Corvair, a silver 1964 model still owned by the elder Seversin, who sold Seversin's East in 1988.

Seversin, a member of the Capital City Corvair Club, now has his own black 1965 Corvair, and Scott Seversin has two Corvairs. A brother-in-law, Larry Claypool, also has a half-dozen Corvairs, along with another 20-some unusual vehicles, and runs The Vair Shop in Frankfurt, Ill., a service shop that specializes in Corvairs.

The Seversins like to attend Corvair conventions, which become like family reunions. Seversin is taking some rare time off this summer so he and his dad can attend the national convention in Portland. Claypool will meet them there.

"(Mike) puts in long hours. It's never a 40-hour week," said Lisa Seversin.

The elder Seversin said he and his son used to putter around with engines, lawn mowers and mini bikes, and built a soap box derby car together, but he never imagined where his son's interest would take him.

"His mother and I never had the guts to do what he's done," said Tom Seversin, 70. "We're very proud of him."