Logan Frank (left) and Phil Schnee are celebrating 60 years with U-Haul.
Sixty Years of Service. It’s something that’s never been achieved before in U-Haul Company’s history. There are some U-Haul Dealerships that have been open for 60 years or more, but all of them are on their second or third generation of family ownership. No single person has reached 60 years of service with U-Haul … until now. More amazingly, TWO people are celebrating 60-year milestones: Logan Frank and Phil Schnee.
The efforts of these two men have helped to build U-Haul from a fledgling trailer-rental operation to the dominant name in the moving and self-storage industry. As U-Haul wraps up its yearlong celebration of the Company’s 70th anniversary, we celebrate the careers of these two U-Haul pioneers who have been with U-Haul almost as long as the Company itself has been in existence.
Both of them have been featured separately on myuhaulstory.com. To read more details about Phil Schnee’s U-Haul journey, click here, and to learn more about Logan Frank’s 60-year career, click here. To hear them muse about what it means to celebrate 60 years with U-Haul, read on.
Phil Schnee
U-Haul Pioneers Ron Green (left) and Phil Schnee in the 1950s.
Admittedly, neither of them knew much about U-Haul when they applied for jobs with the Company. Each of their U-Haul careers started by meeting with U-Haul co-founders L.S. “Sam” Shoen and Anna Mary Carty Shoen.
Schnee’s U-Haul journey started first, in 1953. (He left the Company to go to school or pursue other opportunities a couple times, and he “retired” for a short time, so it took him a couple extra years to reach 60 years of U-Haul service.)
“I was friends with Ron Green, who was Sam and Anna Mary’s neighbor in Portland, Oregon,” Schnee reminisced. “Ron was opening a U-Haul shop in Oakland and wanted me to come with him, so we went to Sam’s house. Sam interviewed me in the basement of his home and hired me on the spot.
“I didn’t know much about U-Haul at the time,” he added. “When I took the job, I didn’t see it as a career move, because I planned to go to college eventually. I was just an 18-year-old kid bouncing around and didn’t know what I wanted to do.”
Logan Frank
Logan Frank with his first trailer load in 1955.
Logan Frank’s U-Haul journey began in 1955, when he answered an ad in the newspaper for people needed to move trailers.
“I had never heard of U-Haul, so I thought it was moving house trailers,” Frank revealed. “When I showed up to answer the ad—with about 60 others—I filled out an application and ended up being hired by L.S. and Anna Mary. I really liked both of them and knew I had found a home.”
Unwavering loyalty
As you might expect of someone who has spent 60 years with the Company, Frank and Schnee have demonstrated unwavering loyalty to Team U-Haul.
“Loyalty is a two-way street,” Schnee stressed. “U-Haul, to me, is like the old saying banks would have: ‘We’re big enough to serve you, but small enough to know you.’ When I was an AFM, I’d stop into dealerships in the evening and the dealers would invite me over to have dinner and even stay the night if I was far from home. Today, when I go into a dealership and say, ‘I’m with U-Haul,’ they always seem to perk up.
“It’s the same way when I’m in Phoenix and stop by the U-Haul headquarters,” Schnee continued. “People who might only know me by name, or vice-versa, treat me like an old friend. That’s true for everyone, including the executives in the Company.”
When asked what this 60-year milestone means to them, both men reflected on their U-Haul journeys.
“It’s important to have fun on the job because life is short,” Frank advised. “Some people focus on their past regrets, fearful of tomorrow, and they forget to live for today. As I look back on 60 years with U-Haul, I’d do it all over again.
“I’ve enjoyed every day of my 60 years with U-Haul,” he cheered. “I often ask Dee, ‘Wasn’t it only yesterday that we started with U-Haul?’ It’s gone by so fast.”
“I started when the Company was working with a blueprint,” Schnee added. “We knew what we were trying to do, and we were able to lay the foundation for everything we’re doing today. The concept of providing a better and better product and service to more and more people at a lower and lower cost was in place long before I started.
“It makes me feel good to say I’ve been a part of this for 60 years,” he continued. “It’s been fun being able to help in the growth of the U-Haul organization and watch it grow. It takes a lot of good people to make this work, and I like to think I helped.”
Do you have anything to add to their story? Share with us in the comments.
