Reed's Marine, Inc. - Service Department

General information

In the Beginning Reed's Marine in the 1950's.Harold and Betty Reed started Reed’s Marine over fifty years ago. In the early 1950′s Harold gave up selling tires as he decided he wanted to be in the boat rental business. Harold hung a phone on an old post in the Delavan Inlet and began to rent small fishing boats. Betty gathered night crawlers from Lake Lawn’s golf course so they would have some bait to sell…very humble beginnings. Not many success stories begin with, “We got up real early and collected worms.” Harold went from renting boats to selling boats and motors. He had one of the earliest Johnson Motor franchises in the state. Soon, the boats got bigger along with the buildings and the crew. By the late 1960′s Harold and Betty had built up one of the largest boat dealerships in the area. They also sold Johnson and Ski-Doo snowmobiles at this time, when snowmobiling was just getting started. In 1970 the business had actually become too large for them to handle. Sales, service and storage at this level, with all the inherent problems, were just too much for this small town couple. New Blood Reed's Marine Sales CenterAs fate would have it, an off-handed comment about their frustration led to a small ad in the Chicago Tribune placed by an over-eager real estate agent. The ad was read by Tom Shallcross who was working at a big corporation in Chicago and suffering from a little “mid-life crisis.” He called his boyhood friend Harry Johnson, and convinced Harry that this...