After 45 years, manager at Buffalo Grove's Mutual Ace Hardware is saying goodbye

Through more than four decades and multiple name changes, Tom Brinkman has been a fixture at one of Buffalo Grove's venerable businesses.

Now Brinkman, manager of Mutual Ace Hardware at 745 S. Buffalo Grove Road, is retiring from the small family business where he's worked since 1977.

The Palatine resident said he and wife Mary, the former principal at St. Thomas of Villanova School in Palatine, now will have more time to take vacations together, after years of her summer break coming during the store's busy season.

Brinkman will be missed by the store's employees and customers.

“It's been fun. The customers are great,” he said. “The people around here are caring. We love the people who shop local.”

Over the years, customers have shown their gratitude for his service in some very personal ways.

“One guy was so thrilled, his wife thought he was a superhero, and he brought me two six packs of beer. That's a great moment,” he said.

Other tokens of appreciation have included everything from a family recipe for mayonnaise to honey from a woman who owned a bee colony. Another customer, who “knew I was into hot sauces,” would bring over sauces and they would test them out in the parking lot.

“I guess my biggest highlight is if somebody comes in and says, ‘I just got a quote for $700 to put a sump pump,' and I go, ‘Don't pay it. Don't do it. We can do a sump pump for $300 and I'll teach you how to do it,'” Brinkman said. “To empower somebody to find out how easy something can be is fantastic.”

Brinkman, 65, began working at the store about a month after it opened in 1977, when it was known as Zimmerman True Value. He met the Zimmerman family when he was a Barrington High School classmate of George Zimmerman Jr., otherwise known as “Randy,” the son of store owner George Zimmerman Sr.

Brinkman remained as the store became Len's Ace Hardware and then Mutual Ace Hardware.

At first, he was put in charge of the tool department. He worked his way up to assistant manager and then manager when the store became Len's Ace.

One fun aspect of the job, he said, is that “anything new tends to come through a hardware store. Some new tools, some new ideas, some new gadget.”

A woodworker, Brinkman especially liked testing out woodworking items.

Brinkman isn't the last remaining connection to the original store. Cheryl Zimmerman Shepherd, the daughter of George Zimmerman Sr. and best friends with Brinkman's sister at Barrington High, still works there.

She said Brinkman's strengths include his ability to keep calm and solve problems, as well as his skills in training younger employees.

“The kids just eat it up, and it's something that they now can use when they own a home,” she said.