SUNBURY - "He was very, very generous," Cory Fasold told a crowd that packed the Sunbury Elks Wednesday night.
He spoke of Robert W. "Bob" Mertz, the president of Sunbury Motor Co. who passed away Jan. 19, with reverence and levity.
Then he opened the floor to the nearly 300 friends, family members and work associates who had gathered to celebrate Bob's life. More than a dozen people stood and shared their stories.
The tales showed Bob as a man of great humor, a man who loved anything with an engine and wheels, a man who took in his employees and treated them as if they were his own family.
His brother, Oakley Mertz, read a letter Bob sent to their father during his college years. It described Bob's love of driving a fuel truck and included a request for a car with a V8 engine to drive over the summer.
Tammy Adams, whose father began Roy Adams and Son Inc. with Bob, described how Bob needed to drive every piece of equipment on the farm. She also shared a story of the time he took her for a ride in the Goodyear Blimp, and how he fell off a 3-foot bridge and broke his arm - she added the ambulance in which he was riding was subsequently in an accident.
Greg Troutman - who spoke of Bob's sense of humor by telling the crowd Bob once climbed onstage at a Diana Ross concert and attempted to hug her - said he had worked for Bob at Sunbury Motors since the day he graduated from high school.
"I am just one example of all the opportunities that Bob Mertz gave," Troutman said.
Tom Mertz, Bob's nephew and now CEO and president of Sunbury Motor Co., reflected on the 27 years he spent as Bob's partner at the company.
"Most of the employees and their families have had a better life because of Bob Mertz," he said.
Stories of Bob throughout his life were shared for more than two hours.
Then the tears shed in remembrance of Bob were dried, and a champagne toast kicked off a party celebrating the life of the man who touched so many.
It's what he would have wanted, Fasold said.