Tire shop owner retired in 1973, was avid boater

12/18/2001

Boyd K. “Bud” Mason, the retired owner of an East Toledo tire store, died yesterday in the Heartland of Oregon nursing home. He was 88.

Ruth Mason, Mr. Mason's wife since 1935, said the cause of her husband's death had not been officially determined, but that he was believed to have suffered a stroke.

Born in Toledo, Mr. Mason was raised in the Genoa area and farmed during his early adulthood. But after he married, he moved back to the city and took a job with the tire dealership at Main Street and Starr Avenue that he would later own.

He lived on Cromwell Drive in Oregon before entering the nursing home.

Mrs. Mason said she could not remember exactly when he became the owner and changed the store's name to Mason Tire Co., which was a Goodyear retailer.

He retired in 1973, at age 60, and sold the business. It has since been resold and is now operated as Moon & Son Tire and Automotive, daughter Phyllis Hartbarger said. “It was a small store - there were three or four guys working for him,” Mrs. Hartbarger said.

Mr. Mason enjoyed boating and fishing and owned several motor craft over the years. He was a past commodore of the Cooley Canal Yacht Club, where he kept his boats.

Mrs. Mason said her husband often went out fishing after closing the store on Saturday and on Sunday. After retiring, he sold his last boat but then often went boating and fishing with friends, she said.

Mr. Mason usually took a vacation once a year, and often drove to northern Michigan to fish. Several of his trips were to Sugar Island in the St. Mary's River, Mrs. Mason said. Mr. Mason had no particular fish that he sought, his wife said - he fished for “anything that would hang onto the hook.”

Surviving are his wife, Ruth Mason; son, Glenn Mason; daughters, Tonita Strohscher and Phyllis Hartbarger; 10 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the Eggleston-Meinert Funeral Home, Coy Road Chapel, where the body will be after 2 p.m. today.

The family requests tributes to a charity of the donor's choice.