By Cam Lucadou-Wells
After 41 years in the trade, commercial vehicles dealer principal Terry Jewson’s grand retirement plans include holidaying, grandparenting, golf, fishing, sausage making and cheering on his beloved Magpies from his mancave.
The retiree was roundly farewelled on his final work day with a lunch and a bottle of Penfold’s Grange from his colleagues at Patterson Cheney Isuzu in Dandenong.
In something of a farewell tour, he was also feted with similar send-offs at the firm’s Derrimut and Campbellfield dealerships.
“It’s a lot of farewells but it has been 41 years,” Mr Jewson said on an emotional last day.
“Today I’m feeling not sure where I am. I’ve already received three or four phone calls to wish me well.
“It’s a bit different, a bit empty. Now that it’s arrived, it’s feeling a bit real.”
A highlight is the building of the 10-acre state-of-the-art truck dealership on a greenfields site in Derrimut in 2010.
The biggest thing he loved was dealing with staff and the bulk of his customers.
He’s big on having a “can-do attitude”, “care factor in everything you do” and empathy – the latter being nigh impossible to teach, he says.
With 50 years in retail sales in butchery, cars and trucks, he just loves selling things.
“People say I’ve got the gift of the gab, you make it look so easy.
“It’s like (ex-Collingwood footballer) Peter Daicos who was kicking goals from everywhere. He said the more you practice, the better you get.”
Now settled in Leongatha, Mr Jewson has a family trip to Cape York planned in July.
He’ll be back in time to see Collingwood Football Club in the AFL Grand Final, he confidently predicts.
He’ll also keep busy doting on four sporty grand-kids, as well as fishing in Port Phillip and Corner Inlet and golfing at Leongatha Golf Club.
Before his long stint in truck sales, he was a butcher.
He intends to keep making Cumberland snags as well as a gourmet pork, pear and parmesan variety.
Before he left the Patterson Cheney building, he’d made sure “everything was in place” with a succession plan three years in the making.
In that time, he’d started to scale back his work hours and hired his replacements at the three outlets.
“I feel I’m leaving it in a very good position, which makes me proud and happy.”
