I met Josef Diamond a few years ago and interviewed him and his son Joel for PT. He was a corker then and is a corker now. What a great guy. I understand that he can be a tough businessman, but in reality he persevered. Other folks often don’t like that. He played hardball in a town that likes softball…at least to quote his biographer.
The company, Diamond Parking in Seattle, is over 80 years old, and Joe started by helping his brother on his lots while working his way through law school. He took over from his brother in the late 40s but continued his law practice. His son Joel and grandson John run the day to day operations today.
Joel Diamond came into the office every day since he became a lawyer in 1931 until illness slowed him down a bit last year. That’s every day for 75 years. He has been working longer than virtually anyone reading this blog have been alive. Read the Seattle Times interview here.
Joe invented the honor box, and the concept of booting, using chains and a 55 gallon drum filled with concrete. His company still runs most of the unattended locations in west, plus on and off airport locations, surface lots and garages in the northwest, Vancouver BC, Alaska, Hawaii, and California. I think they told me they had about 750 locations.
Happy Birthday Joe, many happy returns.
JVH
2 Responses
If he lives a day for every person his company has screwed, he has not even reached middle age yet!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, not hard to believe he’s a lawyer, a lifetime of screwing people, what an accomplishment, lol