Modern Body Shop celebrating a half-century of business in Athens, honoring legacy of founder
Modern Body Shop in Athens is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, but the business founder who grew up in a one-store, crossroads community in south Georgia left a legacy not only for business, but for community service.
Gene Sapp, who died at 88 last August, started the business in 1972 on a stretch of Georgia Highway 72 in Clarke County known as Hull Road.
From a small collision repair shop, the business has grown into a 12,000-square-foot facility with 14 employees doing work from body repairs to new paint jobs.
“We want to honor his legacy and what he built,” said Lamar Sapp, one of Sapp’s four sons who grew up working in their father’s shop.
“He was a self-made man. He came from poor beginnings in south Georgia,” the son said. Sapp was raised in the small community of Carey, located north of Cochran. At 16, he joined the U.S. Army, where he met Paul Sartain, who was dating the sister of the woman that Sapp would one day marry. He met Mary Kesler in a roundabout way through Sartain.
“They started writing each other and they wrote to each other for over a year before they met,” Lamar Sapp said. “They fell in love writing — I wish I had those letters.”
After the couple married, Sapp decided they should move to Athens, where his father-in-law owned a farm.
The Sapps were married for 69 years. She still resides in the area.
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In Athens, Sapp became employed in the body shop department at the J. Swanton Ivy Chrysler Dodge dealership. He went to night school at the University of Georgia and in the 1960s obtained a business administration degree. Then he became a claims adjuster for an insurance company. But in 1972 he purchased a body shop in Toccoa and used the equipment to start Modern Body, according to the son.
“He worked in the business actually until he passed away. He turned it over to me about 35 years ago,” Lamar Sapp said. “I’m 65 years old and I was 15 when we started the business, so this is all I’ve ever done. When I’d come home from Cedar Shoals (High School) in the afternoon, I worked here. When I was 16 years old, I was driving a tow truck in the afternoon and washing cars.”
During his working years, the elder Sapp was elected in the 1980s to the Clarke County Board of Commissioners, a role that had him working on the planning stages for the Classic Center in Athens.
In the 1950s, Sapp was also among a group of people instrumental in having a night school established at UGA.
He and the others “kept aggravating the university to get a night school for people working full time and raising a family. They couldn’t go to school traditionally,” the son recalled.
While he was a businessman and worked for community betterment in a public position, Sapp said his father placed his family first.
Sapp had four sons, including Morris, who is a full-time pastor, and David and Jeff, who have been with the body shop since the 1970s. Sapp’s grandson, Jake Sapp, has also joined the business.
The public is invited to attend the celebration on May 13 from 9-11 a.m at the shop located at 1105 Hull Road across from Fresh Air Barbecue. The shop will open its doors to the community for an anniversary celebration that includes coffee from Java Joy, donuts from Café Racer and biscuits from Golden Pantry.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Modern Body Shop in Athens celebrating its 50th anniversary
