Charlie Hervey remembered for his energy, humor and sign that makes folks smile

Charlie Hervey and the sign no one misses when they travel down Union Street in Rochester. (Courtesy photos)

ROCHESTER - Charlie Hervey will be remembered as a man who grew a tire store into a nationally recognized business, loved dogs and installed the iconic message board outside Hervey's Tire on Union Street where folks driving by can get the time and temperature ... and a thoughtful or witty saying to reflect on.
Charles F. Hervey, who died peacefully at his home on Feb. 17, grew up in the house next door to the tire shop his grandfather founded.
"Growing up the downtown was his playground," Hervey's wife, Jane, said today.
The two married when Hervey was 20 and Jane was just 18.
Not long after that Charlie moved to Washington to serve in the Presidential Honor Guard during the Eisenhower administration. Soon after Jane Hervey moved to Washington to be with her husband.
When they moved back to Rochester Charlie worked for his father Richard and an uncle before purchasing the business in 1964.
He soon expanded the business from one bay to 10, and from a few employees to many more.
While running the business Charlie also served 13 years with the Rochester Fire Department as a call firefighter and seven years on the Rochester City Council, including as Deputy Mayor.
"He was an active guy," Jane Hervey said. "He liked to be involved in everything."
But his favorite contribution to the city was the electronic sign outside Hervey's Tire, which over the years was his pet project.
"He started doing it with just big block letters he'd put in the window," Jane Hervey recalled. "My mother would give him sayings she'd get from tea bags. Then he got a cart that he could roll outside that had the sayings on it."
In 2006 Charlie Hervey purchased the electronic sign that still brings a smile or inspirational thought to people every day.

In 2021 Hervey's Tire Company, Inc., was inducted into the New England Tire & Service Association's Hall of Fame.
According to his obituary in The Rochester Voice, Charlie was very active all his life with walking and riding his bike, even into his 70s. At times he would ride all the way to the family camp on Merrymeeting Lake from Rochester on an old bike that had just one speed.
Above all, Jane Hervey said her husband was a people person who had a great sense of humor.
"Even at the end of life he still had a joke for everybody," she said.