MANSON — Rost Motor Inc., a fixture in the Manson community for 78 years, has closed.

A statement on the Ford dealership’s web site indicates that the business closed this month.

The phone at the business rang unanswered Thursday afternoon.

A call to owner Bernie Rost was not returned Thursday.

The business was founded by Manson area native Leo Rost, a self-taught mechanic.

In 1947, after Rost returned from serving in the Army during World War II, he and another man opened a combination mechanic’s garage and hardware store. Initially, he did his mechanical work with just his left hand because of the lingering effects of being wounded by shrapnel from a German mortar round in April 1945.

Rost became the sole owner of the business in 1951, and four years later he began selling used cars.

He secured a Ford dealership and on April 20, 1958, Rost Motor Inc. debuted.

In the dealership’s early days, he sold cars and ran the parts department while his wife, Mabel, did the bookkeeping. There were three mechanics employed there.

Leo Rost retired in 1988. His sons, Delbert and Bernie, and his daughter, Colleen Kaiser, took it over.