Industry remembers John Loftus, first SCRS executive director
John Loftus, a longtime collision repair industry leader and the first executive director of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), has passed away.
“His motto, which became the foundation of SCRS, was ‘Working together is the most important work we do,'” said Jeff Hendler, owner of J.D. Hendler Associates and co-founder of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC). “He truly believed that we could resolve our issues through meaningful dialogue.”
According to SCRS, Loftus helped spark conversations about forming a group of collision repair shops to give the industry a voice, and went on to serve as director for 18 years. Described as speaking “with knowledge, power, wit, and humor,” Loftus said other shops and competitors were “neither demon nor monster,” but rather a body shop person “just like us.” It was in a day and age where competitors were potentially villainized, before there was a greater sense of community.
“John was respected by everyone who ever met him,” Hendler said. “He wanted what was best for everyone in the collision industry and worked every waking hour to accomplish that goal. SCRS was founded to give John a platform, and he used that platform to develop leaders for our industry.”
For more than 40 years, Loftus mentored Hendler and many others to be better people, he added.
Lou Dilisio Jr. described Loftus as a very special person who took many collision repair professionals under his wing.
“He was a tremendous inspiration, mentor, and friend,” he said. “John had a way of calming situations… down to get to the root issues and provide solutions in place of many others that were good at complaining and standing back for others to solve. I will always remember John and his friendship and wisdom. It is extremely unfortunate that many of you never got the opportunity to meet and know him.
“He was truly the glue that helped put SCRS together and keep it forging ahead.”
Aaron Schulenburg, current SCRS executive director, said Loftus “left an untouchable legacy of advocacy for collision repairers.”
He shared on LinkedIn some words of wisdom from Loftus at SCRS’s 25th anniversary event in 2007.
“John shared, ‘We all have the same love for the industry. We all have the same passion. We want things to be better. We want to be respected and have the pride that goes with the accomplishment of our work. We’re good at what we do. We’re damn good. That’s the thing that SCRS gave voice to. We brought that forth. The problems today are different. There are different challenges. But, the fact is, you have an organization to deal with them. That’s the difference. There was nobody to deal with these things until we came along.'”
Schulenburg added that Loftus’s ethics, commitment, passion, and advocacy have improved the lives of collision repairers.
In a 2018 interview with Gary Ledoux, published in Autobody News, Loftus said collision repair shops “had it tough” in the 1980s, and needed a voice.
“They needed someone or something to pull them together and represent them on a national scale,” he said. “They needed some cohesion. Every shop owner was fighting their own individual battles with insurance companies.”
The article notes that, at that time, auto body associations operated at the state level, and one regional association, IASA, represented the collision and mechanical repair industries in 13 states.
“When I first started, sometimes it was hard to get through to some shop owners,” said Loftus. “They just didn’t get it. I told them they had to start looking at their own costs, like the insurance companies look at theirs. They were wasting so much money. At one of my first speaking engagements, I talked for an entire hour and got zero reaction. At another place, I wasn’t getting through, so we pulled the tablecloth off one of the tables where we had just had dinner, and I stood up on the table and spoke! Some shop owners had to listen to me say the same thing a couple of times before it sunk in.”
Loftus was later dubbed “Dragon Slayer Extraordinaire,” the “dragon” being all the issues and problems he tried to address and resolve during his time as SCRS’s director, the article states.
One of his first accomplishments was advocating state by state for the distribution of an insured motorist’s rights brochure.
“One of the things that insurance companies had customers do was get three estimates from three different body shops, then make them choose the lowest one,” the article states. “Customers found that irritating. Legitimate shops found it counterproductive and less-than-ethical shops used it to low-ball customers to get the work. SCRS worked hard to eliminate that practice. Loftus explained, ‘For the first time, with that brochure, we had a ‘tool’ that shops could use to fight the ‘three-estimate’ practice.'”
Loftus reportedly passed on peacefully, smiling, on Wednesday.
“Rest easy, Mr. Loftus,” Schulenburg wrote. “Thank you for everything.”
Images
Featured image: John Loftus speaking on damage reports. (Contributed by reader)
John Loftus in 1992. (Contributed by reader)
A recent photo of John Loftus (Contributed by reader)