Alfred ‘Al’ Clements Gloeckner Jr.

Alfred ‘Al’ Clements Gloeckner Jr., 87, of Chester passed away peacefully at home, Wednesday, January 4, following a brief illness.

Al is survived by his son, Alfred Clyde (Buddy) Gloeckner, his daughter, Cindy Mae Webster and her husband Mike, his grandchildren: Heather Frantz (Ronald Frantz), Justin Gloeckner (Katelyn Gloeckner), Andrew Hadley, Dylan Gloeckner, and Alex Polling and his great-grandchildren, Ava, Landon, Rowan, Caden, and Shepard. In addition, he is survived by his companion, Shirley Johnston.

Services to celebrate Al’s life will be held at the Arner Funeral Chapel in Chester on Saturday, January 14 at 11 a.m. with Pastor Larry Rose officiating. The family will be present to receive friends at the funeral home on Friday, January 13, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Masonic services will be held at 7:30 p.m. Interment will follow the Saturday services at Columbiana County Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Al Gloeckner was a well-known, successful businessman in East Liverpool, Ohio, who had many prosperous business ventures in the local area throughout the span of 70 years. He and is his wife, Sandra “Sandy” Mae Gloeckner, who preceded him in death in December of 2015, owned and operated many successful, local businesses together and built a life and family that was a great source of pride and happiness for them. It wasn’t easy, it took an early start, a lot of hard work, and many good people who were willing to take a risk on a young, ambitious man with a knack for making unbelievable deals and turning profits. Al was a contradictory man with a stubborn streak a mile long, but a big heart and a soft spot for those he loved and who loved him. He valued true grit, work ethic, and loyalty and demonstrated those traits in all he accomplished.

Al began work at the age of 15 when he was hired by Tom Carrol at Carrol Motors Ford Gas Station, by 16 he was driving a tow truck there, and at 17 he graduated from East Liverpool High School and Tom Carrol approached Al about buying Carrol Motors for himself. Al was up for the offer but had no money to make the deal. Tom offered to fill the fuel tanks at the gas station and allow Al to pay monthly for fuel and inventory via his profits. Al said, “Deal!”, making him a bonified business owner before the age of 18. Al expanded Carrol Motors to install tires for Montgomery Wards and acquired the tire business from Waterford Park taking care of manure trucks. In 1953, Al moved Carrol Motors to Paramount Gas Station aka “Dresden Carry Out Now” located at 1068 Dresden Ave, and was doing at least half of all towing operations in the East Liverpool area. In 1954, Al added U-haul trailers to his inventory and acquired the business “Gasoline” for the Ohio State Highway trucks and in 1955 he added two more tow trucks to his operations.

Al was also very persistent and successful in love, he liked to tell the story of how he met and married the love of his life, Sandy. Al spoke of how he relentlessly pursued Sandy 70 years ago after spotting her outside her home on St. Clair Ave. Al said Sandy was the most beautiful girl, he had ever laid eyes on. From that point forward Al would honk his horn every time he passed her home in his tow truck and later began calling her, she eventually stopped hanging up on him long enough to accept a date and he put a ring on it in 1955.

In 1956, Al moved his service station operations to the 8th St. Atlantic Service Station and began 24-hour operations. Then, in 1957 he added Hertz Car Rental services, but had to take a job at Crucible Steele to make ends meet. Later that year, Al added a second island for gasoline to his service station and welcomed his first child, a son, Alfred “Buddy” Clyde Gloeckner, in January 1958. Then, Atlantic Gas Company approached Al and told him that the state of Ohio was taking his property for a Highway Expansion and that he had 60 days to relocate his business. Al moved the service station back to the original location of Carrol Motors at 740 Dresden Ave.

Later in the year, Al found property at 424 West Third St. owned by Dale Thompson (Thompson House) and persuaded Atlantic Gas to secure a loan from Union National Bank of Pittsburgh to purchase the property and then lease it to Al and he began construction of a 3-bay, gasoline/service station, which allowed him to offer additional services for customers to include tire alignment, tune-ups, tailpipe, and general mechanic repairs. By 1959, business was booming for Al, and he left Crucible, added U-haul trucks to his inventory, and bought two outdoor freezers from Golden Star Dairy for $1000, which agreed to that sale price only if Al started selling their milk instead of Beverly farms. Al then started a new service station with 2 bay lifts and rented 3 garages on Smith Street from Phil Miraglata to store U-hauls and wrecked cars.

Al eventually made the decision to close the 3-bay service area he had built and replaced it with a grocery store. He then bought a beer and wine license from Al Greco and went on to be the number-one retailer of milk and beer in the state of Ohio. Al had to have beer and milk trucks left at the station to keep from running out.

Around this time, Al also purchased a cab company and bought cabs from the Yellow Cab Co. in Pittsburgh for $375 each. Each car had over 200,000 miles, but according to Al, “they ran great!” and he had 10 cars in service daily.

Amid his flurry of business expansion, Al was approached by a realtor, Pete Kaiser, who was trying to sell the old American Paper Products building that had been vacated and was located across the street from Al’s Service Station. Pete, also a persistent man, visited Al daily to encourage him to make an offer on the 3-story, 33,000 sq. foot building with 2 elevators. The asking price was $299,000 and Al knew he couldn’t swing it so persistently declined. Finally, after months of Pete’s daily visits, Al agreed to make an offer. Al’s offer was $17,000. Al said that Pete laughed and said, “Who are you trying to kid, they will never accept your ridiculous offer!” The following day the offer was accepted. Only problem – Al had no money and needed a pay schedule. The sellers agreed and gave Al the payment schedule with 4% interest. Al hosted an Aria Homes Show once acquiring the building and after the show, he started using the building for storage of wrecked cars and cars towed by the city and state. Al also used the building yearly to store his live chicks, which were colored and used for his infamous Easter promotion for his service station – buy 8 or more gallons of gas and receive a free chick for Easter! He gave away 10,000 chicks yearly during that time. Al sold enough gas at his Rt. 30 station that Atlantic Refining put additional pumps on the opposite side of the street and built a car wash, at no charge to Al, to increase fuel sales.

Then, Litton Motors Oldsmobile dealer needed space to store cars, Al had space for 50 cars and the dealer offered Al a solid deal. Instead of paying for the space the Oldsmobile dealer offered Al a new 98 series Oldsmobile for payment of the garage space and the dealer agreed to exchange the car yearly for Al for the newest model. Al was driving in style for many years due to that deal!

In 1963, Al decided to try his hand at the restaurant business, he located a property for his vision, which was owned by the Jack Roberts-Kaywood family. He contacted realtor Pete Kaiser, who contacted the family and informed them of Al’s $4000 offer for the property. However, Al didn’t have $4000, so he needed the Roberts-Kaywood family to finance him so he could secure a loan with First National Bank for the construction of his vision – the family agreed. Mr. Emmerling and Bob Boyce came from the bank to look at the property and just shook their heads according to Al, but they approved the loan. Al’s first successful restaurant venture, Buddy’s, infamous for its 15c burgers, opened in 1964 and sold thousands of burgers daily.

Al purchased his home in Chester in 1966 and in 1968 he welcomed his daughter, Cindy Mae. Then in 1969 the family suffered a devastating house fire that was later determined by Chief Jim Pelley to have been caused by faulty electrical work. That same year the state closed the bridge near Buddy’s restaurant, which was the main traffic source for Buddy’s, and business plummeted. The state said it closed the bridge because it was not safe. In 1970 Buddy’s closed as it was no longer profitable due to bridge closure. The state was set to take property but not for the value of the property, the state said the property was worthless. Al argued that the property should be acquired for what it was worth before the bridge closure. Al sued the State in Common Pleas Court with attorneys Fineman and Aronson. During the second day of testimony at the trial, Attorney George Aronson called a division II state engineer to the witness stand and asked the question, “Why was the bridge closed?”.

The engineer answered, “We had a meeting with division II engineers, and all agreed we had a four-lane road to build to W.Va. and this was a good time to get rid of the old 2 lane bridge.” Attorney Aronson went on to ask the engineer if the bridge was safe at the time of closure and the engineer answered yes.

Judge Bettis immediately called the attorneys to the bench and after a brief conversation, the judge delivered the verdict that the property value would be based on its valuation prior to the bridge closure. A win for Al after some devastating losses.

In 1970 Al purchased 2.5 acres of land in Calcutta and built his second restaurant, Cindy’s, which opened in 1971 and served the best homestyle cooking around.

In 1976, Al got his real estate license from Kent State East Liverpool, built another Buddy’s restaurant on W. 8th St., and got his license for realtor law. Al went on to sell Wick homes and in 1977 was the #1 dealer for Wick, selling 31 model homes that year.

In 1978, Al built a grocery store in Chester, W.V. on Carolina Ave. and it is still there, now the 7/11, although Al sold the store in 1983 to help fund his biggest business venture yet, the East Liverpool Motor Lodge. Al owned property on Dresden Ave., and the city of East Liverpool wanted a hotel to be built on the property. Al annexed the City and acquired a Hud grant, which provided free water and sewage to the Dresden Ave. property for 15 years. Al built the E.L. Motor Lodge in 1981 and opened in August 1982. The hotel included a restaurant providing the best Prime Rib in the area, a lounge, a health spa, an indoor swimming pool, banquet facilities, a salon, and a barbershop. Many locals enjoyed evenings at the hotel lounge via bands, comedians, and entertainment. If you were a mom in East Liverpool during the era of Cindy’s or the Motor Lodge – there’s a good chance you spent Mother’s Day with Al and his family for Mother’s Day Brunch.

In 1984, Al closed Cindy’s and leased the building to Tad Motors for a car dealership, he needed money to support the Motor Lodge.

In 1990 Al turned Buddy’s into Dunkin Donuts in East Liverpool and acquired a Dunkin Donuts in Steubenville, Oh. In 1993 the state closed Rt. 7 to repair the hillside and Al was forced to close both Dunkin Donuts locations.

The East Liverpool Motor Lodge did not do the business Al had hoped for, he said, “The Motel was a loser – thought I had a golden goose business, but it laid a big egg – nothing but trouble…” The motel could never do enough business to support the payment of $25,000 per month. Al eventually filed for bankruptcy and bondholders reduced the interest rate for the loan payment which lowered the monthly payment to $17,000. The motel survived until Al sold the Motor Lodge in 2006 when he bought the Dairy Queen franchise from Dr. Frank Rivelle and opened it at his 900 West 8th St. location, which is still operating under family management via his son, Buddy, and grandson, Dylan, who recently purchased the Leetonia Dairy Queen.

1/10/23