John R. McGill Jr.

John R. McGill Jr., who used equal parts creativity and hard work to build Valley Tire & Brake into a Santa Rosa mainstay, died May 17 of natural causes. He was 67.

McGill grew up locally, playing both basketball and trumpet at Santa Rosa High School. Even then, work was his primary focus, son John McGill III said Thursday.

With an ill mother at home, McGill started helping with the family finances when he was just a boy, picking orchard crops, mowing lawns and delivering newspapers.

After high school, McGill attended Sonoma State for two years, but the demands of holding a job while studying proved too much, his son said.

Instead, McGill moved to San Francisco where he hustled his way into a managerial position at the Firestone Tire store on Van Ness Avenue.

McGill used the experience to open Valley Tire & Brake in Napa, followed by another shop in Fairfield and finally a third location in Santa Rosa in 1968.

Originally the Santa Rosa operation was just a small satellite in a fledgling chain, his son said. But its rapid growth allowed his father to sell the other sites and concentrate on his hometown. The elder McGill later opened two businesses nearby, Piner Road Car Wash and Valley Fast Oil & Lube.

Even as business expanded from a two-mechanic shop to one with dozens of employees, McGill was always quick to jack up a car, his son said. A perpetual cover of grime earned him a telling nickname: "Dirty John."

But his father's success was as much inspiration as perspiration, McGill III said. In the early &‘70s, McGill bought a fleet of 20 used Datsun B210s, painted them bumblebee yellow and wrote the name of the shop on them in blue.

At the time, it was nearly unheard of for an auto shop to offer loaner vehicles, and grateful customers flocked there from as far away as Mendocino and Lake counties, McGill III said.

His dad invested his profits in real estate, building more than a dozen custom homes across the county.

Perhaps his most distinct house was his own, a 4,500-square-foot home in The Foothills that was inspired by the barns of western Sonoma County. Fitted with historic windows, faucets and radiators, it attracted attention from the likes of Sunset Magazine.

McGill handed over operation of the family businesses to his son in 1995, spending much of his time kayaking and cycling in Maui and Lake Tahoe.

McGill also was a devoted grandfather and a regular at his grandkid's sporting events. Later in life, "Dirty John" was better known as "Poppa John."

His unexpected death sparked an outpouring from customers, many of them recounting long-ago tales of his generosity, McGill III said.

McGill is survived by his parents, John and Doris McGill; his brother, Dennis McGill and wife Ruth; his son, John McGill III and wife Lynele; his daughter, Suzie McGill and her partner, Anthony Jules; and four grandchildren.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 5, at the Fountaingrove Golf Club, 1525 Fountaingrove Parkway. Guests are encouraged to wear Hawaiian attire.