When he graduated from high school in a small Kentucky town in 1954, Charles Davis knew he didn’t want to work in his community’s dominant industry.
“I told my mother I wasn’t going to work in no coal mine,” Davis said.
Davis, 85, never did.
He joined the Air Force and, after being discharged, started a career in the automotive industry in Las Vegas that has so far lasted over 60 years.
“When I joined the service, my mother didn’t want me to sign up, but I got a principal to sign my form,” said Davis, who worked as a radio operator out of Nellis Air Force Base. “After I left Nellis, I just stayed here and never left. It’s a different place now — this is a major city — but I still love Las Vegas.”
In 1960, Davis started a job at what would become Pete’s Used Cars, a lot at 1600 E. Fremont St.
Since then, Davis has worked for what is now Findlay Automotive Group — founded by the late Pete Findlay — first cleaning up and washing cars and later as a courier, shuttling documents and car parts between the company’s dealerships in the Las Vegas Valley.
On June 3, Davis celebrated his 62nd anniversary with the company, though just about anyone there says Davis is more family than employee.
“I’ve only had one job since I left the Air Force in 1960,” Davis said. “I just stuck with it because I like what I do, and I work for some good people. When I hit 20 years, I figured I could probably do another 20, and so on. I take it one day at a time now.”
Soft-spoken with a warm disposition, Davis is quick to offer a smile and is known by everyone at Findlay’s dealerships.
Tony Lopez, a salesman at Findlay Lincoln who has been with the company for 17 years, said nobody is nicer than Davis.
“He’s worked here so long, he’s a part of the family,” Lopez said. “At any dealership, when (Davis) walks in, everyone says hello to him.”
On a recent afternoon, Davis was at Findlay’s Lincoln dealership at the Valley Auto Mall in Henderson. Some co-workers know him as Charles and others Charlie.
Those who know him best call him Charlie or Chuck or Dave, a play on his last name. That group includes Cliff Findlay, president of Findlay Automotive Group and son of Clifford “Pete” Findlay.
“I’ve known (Davis) since I was a teenager when he first started working for my dad,” Cliff Findlay said in an email. “He used to drive me places back in the early 1960s, before I had a driver’s license. He’s been a dedicated and trusted employee for 62 years; you can’t ask more of anyone. I can’t express how much he means to our company and to the Findlay family.”
Davis said he would often drive members of the Findlay family to Northern Nevada or Orange County, Calif., for weekend trips. He remembers going to drag races in Utah and Arizona.
Davis said he helped move the family from Panaca, a small town in Lincoln County, to Las Vegas when Cliff Findlay was 11 years old.
Pete Findlay started in the auto industry by working at a Texaco service station in Panaca in the 1940s before he joined the military. He opened Pete’s Used Cars in Las Vegas in 1957.
That first foray into the Las Vegas market would later turn into a multidealership powerhouse. Findlay now has 18 dealerships in the valley, along with about 20 other car lots in Northern Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah, Oregon and Idaho.
“I learned a lot from Pete Findlay,” Davis said. “He taught me to take pride in my work. He helped me stay out of trouble as a young man. He even tried to make me into a salesman at one point, but I said no way.”
Today, Davis still makes the daily drive from the home he shares with his wife, Mercedes, near Texas Station to the Valley Auto Mall.
Davis laughed when asked if he might work until he’s 100 but said he has no plans to retire just yet.
“I don’t want to turn into a couch potato,” Davis said. “As long as I can work, I’m going to work. I’ve known people who stop working and next thing you know, they die. I figure if I stopped, I wouldn’t live too long.”
Earlier this year, Davis had a scare during a bout with COVID-19. He was hospitalized and had to miss several months of work.
“I was basically in bed for three months,” Davis said. “I could hardly walk at all. I felt like an actual old person.”
Nathan Findlay, one of Cliff Findlay’s sons and the general manager of Findlay Lincoln, said he worried about his longtime friend and employee.
“Even my memories as a small child, Charlie was always around and always a big part of our lives,” Nathan Findlay said. “I would go to his house as a young kid and he would drive us to sports practices. Charlie’s family. Back in his prime, Charlie could have gotten a job doing whatever he wanted, but he stayed with us.”
Nathan Findlay used words like “respect” and “love” and “trust” when describing Davis. “Charlie will work here until it’s no longer good for him,” he said.