Bill Shimkat remembers in vivid detail that day in 1986 when his father, Edward C. Shimkat, took him out to the Fort Dodge family’s Shimkat Motor Co. garage to hand over keys to a 1978 Plymouth Sport Fury – eight years old, a white two-door with gold interior and gold half top.

“I was so excited, then we went back in the house and mom told me what my car payment was,” he recalled. “So, I got paid on Fridays and had to make my car payment to mom. I was so happy to have that car though, and I found out later that mom put the money in my college fund. It taught me fiscal responsibility at that early age, though.

“I eventually saved up money and bought a used set of Keystone Classic wheels from my brother, had dual exhaust and glass packs installed, and I bought an Alpine tape deck and a set of six-by-nine speakers.

“My buddies and I blasted a lot of Van Halen through those speakers.”

Bill Shimkat was in a reminiscent mood after he and his brother, Ed Shimkat Jr., third-generation owners of the dealership, sold it to owners of another Fort Dodge family business, the Johnson family, which owns Fort Dodge Ford Lincoln Toyota. Effective Nov. 12, Shimkat Motor Co. was renamed Fort Dodge Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram.

Bill Shimkat said his children and the children of his brother were not interested in taking over the business, and that he and his brother had been considering a five-year plan to retirement.

Now Shimkat Motor Co. is part of Fort Dodge history.

The company touched thousands of people in its 78 years of existence, from its customers to its employees to the family members who devoted their lives to the dealership. Over its history, Ed Shimkat Jr. said, it sold as many as 75,000 vehicles.

The memories are many of those in the family who succeeded brothers Edward A. Shimkat and George Shimkat. The two received a DeSoto and Plymouth franchise on May 14, 1947, and opened their dealership on June 1, 1947. (Dodge was added to its lineup in 1957 followed by Chrysler in 1964.)

“When they opened the dealership, I was 5-years-old,” said Ed Shimkat Sr., who with his brother Bruce Shimkat, were second-generation owners from 1987 until Ed retired in 2009. “The first showroom was on 12th Street. It was just wide enough for one car (you could only open the passenger door), a desk behind and a mechanic behind that. The car lot was gravel at the east end of the building facing south with one or two cars. Once the new building at 1225 Second Ave. S. was finished, they moved to a bigger space.

“One of my favorite memories was from when I was 12-years-old. I was too young to drive but I got to wash cars and of course you had to drive them to the main building and back, so I was driving at a very young age. I always chose the ones with the loudest exhaust first.”

The tradition of paying their parents for their first car started with the founders, Ed Shimkat Sr. said.

I was 19 when I got my first car, a 1954 Plymouth two-door hardtop with a manual transmission,” he said.

It continued with son Ed Shimkat Jr., who said “I was 16-years-old when I bought my first car – it was a 1975 red Plymouth Sport Fury with a white top. Back then, being family, the parents decided what vehicle made the most sense for us and then we made payments to our parents until the vehicle was paid off. I really loved that car and enjoyed it – it is one of those cars that I wished I had back.”

Shimkat Motor Co. had “so very many great customers over the years,” Bill Shimkat said, “but there is one that sticks out – Marv Dally. I believe he had worked for my grandfather in the 1950s but went on to farm out by Webster City. He and his wife would buy several cars a year and a new truck every year. They had probably purchased somewhere around 200 or so vehicles. It was always great to see them; they were friends and customers.

“When Marv passed in 1998, dad, my uncle Bruce, my brother and I were all pallbearers at his funeral. There was more than one employee who would joke that if you bought enough cars from Shimkats, you would get guaranteed pallbearers. But there were so many others that you just loved to see come in the door.”

Bruce Shimkat, who after his brother Ed’s retirement owned the dealership with his two nephews, Ed Jr. and Bill, until he retired in 2019, has another favorite customer story to tell:

“I received a call from a local businesswoman in Fort Dodge in the ’80s,” he said. “She was a Cadillac driver and wanted to purchase a new vehicle. I went to her store and showed her a new Chrysler New Yorker which she purchased. She told me a story that when she told her friends that she had purchased a new car and they asked what kind, her response was, ‘I don’t know, I bought a Shimkat!’ A fun, true and very humbling comment.”

Shimkat Motors’ beginnings in Fort Dodge trace to when Edward A. Shimkat was working for the DeSoto division of Chrysler Corporation in Omaha, Nebraska., in the late 1940s, after the end of World War II. Bruce Shimkat related, “He requested the opportunity to own a store. He was given two choices, Fort Dodge, Iowa, or Denver, Colorado. He chose Fort Dodge.

“I will assume that this decision was partially driven by the fact that he was raised in a small South Dakota town, Bridgewater, and he would be closer to family in the Fort Dodge location. He recruited his brother George, a cattleman in South Dakota, to join him.”

When the Shimkat brothers came to Fort Dodge as the DeSoto and Plymouth dealer, they joined two other Chrysler product dealers – Rankin Rooftop Motors, the Dodge and Plymouth dealer, and Gralnek Motors, the Chrysler and Plymouth dealer. The Shimkats started in a small rented space on South 12th Street on June 1, 1947 – a day, Bruce Shimkat said, “that there was a huge blizzard that went through the Midwest the days before opening. So, the story is told that they opened in a blizzard.” They were in the rented building for a short time before, in 1948, they built a new building at 1225 Second Ave. S. This is the location currently occupied by Mediacom.

Edward A. Shimkat died in 1987 – he suffered a fatal heart attack while working at the dealership. He was 77. His brother George died in 2008.

“Most all of my memories of my grandfather and great uncle George are at the dealership,” Bill Shimkat said. “They grew up in that generation that went through the Depression and World War II and just worked all the time. They were both at the dealership at five in the morning getting the day started.”

From a Fort Dodge Messenger editorial just after his death that called Shimkat a “stickler for honesty and fairness in his dealings over the years,” it said:

“Edward Shimkat’s successful career and the solid business organization he and his family have operated are proof of the value of hard work, attention to detail, avoidance of excessive indebtedness, and honesty and fair dealing. Those were traits that might well be emulated throughout the business world.”

In the early 2000s other car dealers were located or relocating to the Crossroads area east of downtown. The company decided that to remain competitive, it needed to relocate and expand, and after looking at a number of options purchased the former K Mart building on Fifth Avenue South.

Bruce Shimkat said, “We had also learned that Jim Schmidt with Shoppers Supply wanted part of the building so we became the lead buyer, purchased the building and sold the section to Jim that is now occupied by Bomgaars. This was a significant move for us and greatly enhanced our space and visibility. Ed and I are very proud of the move and the resulting remodeled facility.”

Shimkat Motor Co. has had many long-term employees.

“Over the years we did not have a lot of employee turnover,” Bruce Shimkat said. “The longest-tenured employees who come to mind are Roger Harvey and Brian Dencklau. Roger started at the dealership in the 1960s as a technician and spent his later years as our parts manager. Roger was part of the Shimkat family for 50 years before his passing. Another long-time employee who recently retired was Brian Dencklau. He started as a teenager and was part of our family for 49 years, ending his career as our service manager.”

Don Wright joined Ed and George Shimkat in 1949 after service with the U.S. Navy during World War II and was general manager of the dealership until he went into semi-retirement in 1987. Wright, who was best man for Ed’s wedding, died in 1990 at the age of 76.

What’s the future look like for those who once owned Shimkat Motors? Well, for one thing, and no surprise here, it includes cars.

Ed Shimkat Sr. and his wife Judy, who have been married 60 years, live at Friendship Haven. He said he has “one old car I’ve been playing with – a 1966 Dodge Charger I’ve owned for 30 years that I keep in an extra garage at Friendship Haven.”

The Shimkats’ daughter, Anne Harding, does cardiac research at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City and her husband, Matt, teaches physics and coaches soccer at Liberty High in Iowa City.

Bruce Shimkat and his wife Sally spend their time in Fort Dodge and Naples, Florida.

“A side note,” he said, “Obviously during my career in the business I have purchased many vehicles for the dealership but, the first vehicles I personally owned were bought in October 2025; 74 years old. I have always driven Shimkat Motor Co.-owned vehicles. This is a new beginning for me.”

Bill Shimkat plans to help his wife, Dr. Kim Shimkat, a veterinarian, with the business aspects of her Fort Dodge practice, Family Pet Medical Center. They live on an acreage, and Bill and his brother Ed have a car workshop there. It houses about 10 older vehicles, the oldest built in 1947.

Ed Shimkat Jr. is moving to Washington, DC, to be with his wife, Lisa, who last January became associate administrator of field operations for the Small Business Administration and also serves as the acting associate administrator of the Office of Manufacturing and Trade for the Small Business Administration.

“For the last 20 years,” he said, “my wife has supported me and my dream. She is now living her dream and I am moving out there to support her. I am truly looking forward to this next adventure. I’m definitely going to find a job once I get settled out there.”

Their daughter, Lea Schorzmann, who works for Kwik Star as a guest services representative and lives in Fort Dodge, recalled that “One of my first jobs was working detail at the shop. I learned so much from changing tires to how to work with customers. I am truly grateful for the opportunity and so glad that our family had fun over the years. We were always volunteering for different community events and learning in the process how important everyone is when working together to make a difference.”

And yes, there is a fourth-generation Shimkat carrying the first name of Edward. That’s Ed Jr. and Lisa’s son Edward, who lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife Katherine, and works for Campbell’s Soup Company as sales capability specialist. Katherine works for the Linn County Attorney’s Office as an assistant Linn County attorney.

Judy Shimkat, Ed Sr.’s wife, shared that at Shimkat Motors’ 75th anniversary celebration three years ago, representatives from Chrysler Corp. who attended said the Shimkats were one of only two families in the nation that had maintained a dealership that long.

Bruce Shimkat said he hopes Shimkat Motors will be remembered “for providing a non-pressure, caring, supportive and friendly sales and service experience. I also hope that we will be remembered for 78 years of support of many organizations and projects in the Fort Dodge area. We were a community-minded, family business.”

Ed Shimkat Jr. offered these closing thoughts:

“Being a small business owner is never easy. So many times, people may look at a business owner and think that we had a lot of time off or had it easy. That is completely not the case. When we all became full-time employees, we were working from 60 to 80 hours per week. As a business owner or a family member of the business owner, you did everything from emptying the garbage to calculating payroll. My brother and I grew up in the dealership and truly loved what we did. Having a genuine love for the car business was in our blood and DNA. I would not have traded any part of the journey because as we start the next part of our journey after the sale of the business, I will truly miss the family we had with our employees, our customers and my favorite part was being able to work side by side with my brother over the years.

“We did not do what we did for fame or fortune. We did what we did because seeing someone get in their first car was priceless and then seeing them come back for their next car as their family grew made us feel as though we were a part of their story. We tried to also be involved in the community and give back through our time or talents whenever we were able. For a community to thrive, everyone needs to lean in and take ownership of making our community better. We are proud to have been a part of the Fort Dodge community for all of these years and hope that we were able to have a positive impact on Fort Dodge.”