Looking Back, Looking Ahead: The Legacy Lives On

It’s been a little over two months since the passing of Nick DePaul, Jr., the owner and operator of Parkville Auto Body – time enough for us to gather our thoughts and reflect back on his life, legacy, and lasting impact on the business he led for more than 40 years.

Nick grew up in Humboldt Park, graduating from Prosser Academy before enlisting in the National Guard Reserves. He began his career in car care shortly after high school, starting as a painter and working at a number of dealership body shops before joining the Parkville team in the 1980s. Over time Nick gained hands-on experience in every job in the shop and every phase of the business, and when the opportunity to buy in arose in 1994, he jumped at it and became a Parkville owner at the age of 41.

In subsequent years, Nick’s stature as a leader in the auto body repair industry grew – he served as the Vice President of the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Illinois (AASPI) – and Parkville’s reputation for excellence in the field did as well. “My dad built this business on his values – quality, integrity, and customer satisfaction,” says Nick DePaul III, who is succeeding his father as Parkville’s owner and operator. “You can see the results in our exceptionally high level of return business, and our continued growth as an independent body shop in an age of corporate consolidation.”

It’s clear that Parkville’s future remains in good hands with the younger Nick at the helm. Upon graduating from DePaul University with a business management degree, Nick spent two years working for a third party logistics company before joining Parkville, initially to handle the books and then moving into operations. In 2018, he left for a two-year sojourn as a claims adjuster for a major auto insurance company, gaining valuable insight into the appraisal process and often adversarial relationship between insurers and repair shops. When COVID struck in 2020, Nick rejoined Parkville and played an instrumental role in guiding the shop through the challenges of staying open as an ‘essential business’ throughout the pandemic. He’s been his dad’s right hand man ever since, and today stands poised to continue building Parkville’s legacy of leadership among northwest suburban auto body shops.