Retiring Michigan car dealer gives employees $1,000 bonus for each year of service

When the 90 or so employees at Howard Cooper Import Center gathered early Wednesday morning at the Ann Arbor, Mich., car dealership, many thought they knew what was happening.

Their 83-year-old boss, whose name graces the dealership, had sold the family-owned business in April and was announcing his retirement after 47 years.

Many expected a goodbye speech, some thanks and maybe a hug.

Cooper said, "Let's get to the point of why we're here..."

And then he pulled out a bag and started calling out the names of his employees. As wide-eyed workers quickly realized, Cooper was handing out bonus checks to celebrate his retirement. Employees got $1,000 for every year of service at the dealership.

"It was absolutely a surprise," Katie Kowalski, a cashier/receptionist at the dealership, told Yahoo News. "Some started crying. Everyone was excited."

Kowalski has been there about a year and described her $1,000 bonus as "the biggest generosity I've encountered in my life."

Some employees have been at the dealership for about 40 years, General Manager George Davis said. That's a $40,000 gift from the boss.

"To some that check was a huge windfall and their lives will be altered by it," said Davis, who has been there for 20 years. "For others maybe it won't change much and it was a nice gesture."

"But more important than the dollars was the fact that he did this," Davis said of Cooper. "He is very close to us as employees, and we are close to him. He didn't have to do this. A farewell would have been just fine enough for us."

Cooper told AnnArbor.com, "I wanted to thank my employees and that was a way I could do it. I hope it makes a difference in their lives like they have made in mine."

Davis said Cooper is more like a father figure than a boss to many workers. "It's a unique automobile dealership," Davis said. "Howard never puts anything before employees."

Cooper began the dealership in 1965 on what was then farmland about a mile from the University of Michigan campus, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Cooper told the Free Press it was with mixed emotions that he decided to sell to Germain Motor Co., based in Columbus, Ohio. Germain also has dealerships in Easton, Ohio; Sarasota, Fla.; and Naples, Fla.