We occasionally provide excerpts from The Great American Car Wash Story. Former ICA Executive Director Gus Trantham and veteran commercial writer John Beck wrote this book in 1994. It represents the most complete history we have found of the industry in North America. Enjoy.

CHAPTER 24: The Coy Years of the Association

The title of this chapter is not intended to imply that there was anything blushing or demure about the Carwash Association the year Jack Milen was elected president at the Riviera Hotel during the 1958 convention in Las Vegas.

It just happens that at that convention the members of the board had gathered to consider the need for a full-time, paid, professional assistant to help manage the burgeoning association affairs. One man under consideration was William H. Coy, a public relations consultant who operated as William Coy Associates out of the Fox Building in Detroit.

Jack Milen, as the third president, was a member of the board. He had been one of the founding fathers of the association and had witnessed the increasing load of responsibilities. He had strong feelings about car washing as a great business, a feeling that was later inherited by his family and his three sons — Bruce, Michael and Tony — who early determined to follow in his footsteps.

As owner and operator of the National Auto Service Wash and the Jax Kar Wash in the Detroit area, Jack got a great kick out of setting records, and he likes to recall how, when he opened his Jax Kar Wash in 1954, he washed 50,000 cars in its first 100 days. Jack was never afraid of work. But he was a very pragmatic businessman who realized that it would no longer be possible for a car wash operator to handle all the Association responsibilities on a part-time basis while also managing his own carwashes. He favored the idea of a professional assistant such as Bill Coy.

Coy was selected and appointed Executive Director of the Association, so when Jack took over his responsibilities as president he was able to do so with the confidence of being backed up by a professional manager located literally in his own backyard. Being a publicist, one of the first things Bill Coy did was to put out a monthly bulletin. Up until this time, the only regular avenue of communication with car wash operators had been through the Auto Laundry News published by Robin King out of California. With the new headquarters for the Association located in Detroit, Bill knew it was important to maintain communications out of his offices in this city.

It was about this time that the name of the Association was changed from the American Auto Laundry Association to the Automatic Car Wash Association, International, for the new bulleting carried the title “A.C.W.A. International Newsletter.”

There was a certain gimmick to this new name, for the acronym ACWA, when spoken as a word, sounded like the Latin word “aqua” for water, although it’s uncertain how many Latin scholars you might have found in the ranks of car washers. Several years later, on February 12, 1962, this name was chartered as a Tennessee Corporation by Max Borod, whose offices were located in Memphis. The incorporators included Jack Milen, Dave Lippitt, Ross Thompson, Jimmy Butts and Merle Strauch.

The newsletter, which was edited by Coy, played an important role in keeping association members better informed about Association activities as well as car wash progress throughout the United States in general as well as in Canada.

The effect of this was immediate as member pricked up their ears to learn what was happening. This sheet also aroused such interest in the next convention that when it convened in the Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit it turned out to be the best attended meeting in the history of the Association. A total of 406 people registered and many more came just to view the manufacturers’ exhibits and to visit with other operators.