Alvah Goldsmith was a foreman at an auto dealership in Southold, Long Island, in 1923 when he ponied up the money to buy a 4-hp Evinrude outboard for his personal use. He liked the motor so much that he wrote the manufacturer to say so. To his surprise, company founder Ole Evinrude wrote back and said that if Goldsmith liked the motor that much, maybe he’d like to become a dealer. The process was simple, he wrote, requiring the purchase of one more engine to sell.
Goldsmith was intrigued by the idea and ran it by his father, who was instantly skeptical. “I don’t know who would buy the cussed things,” he told his son. Goldsmith bought the engine anyway, and the decision took his life in a new direction. It enabled him to start a business that would become one of the country’s oldest continuously operating marine dealerships.
