At Blackwell’s Body Shop & Wrecker Service, Timothy Robertson is preserving a family legacy while leading with the same people first mindset that defined Monroe and Kathy Blackwell’s work.

Words by Jenny Lynn Davis | Images by Al Blanton

From the time he was a young boy, Timothy Robertson was never far from the shop floor.

Long before he became shop manager at Blackwell’s Body Shop & Wrecker Service, he was a kid spending every spare minute he could with his uncle, Monroe Blackwell. 

“He was my favorite uncle and kind of like a dad to me, so I spent all my spare time with him as a kid, running around the shop floor, going fishing, and doing things like that,” Tim says.

He remembers intently watching Monroe hammer out metal, touch up paint, and restore damaged vehicles to their best states. Tim developed a fondness for the meticulous work of auto body repair and an appreciation for working with others to accomplish a goal. Even so, he did not go straight into the family business. Out of high school, he thought welding would be his future. He earned a welding degree and, at the same time, helped his friend open seven mobile phone stores. Looking back, he sees both experiences as preparation.

“I always say God puts you in places to prepare you for the future,” he says. “He put me there to learn how to work with metal and then to learn business so I’d be ready for what I’d have to deal with later as far as managing and running a business.” 

In 2007, Tim got a call asking if he wanted to work at Blackwell’s. He said yes, and soon, he was once again under the roof where he spent much of his formative years. 

“To start off, they trained me to do repair estimates and it was kind of second nature,” he says. “I just picked up on it and enjoyed what I was doing.” 

Over time, he moved from estimates into management, and, in a path he laughingly describes as backwards, he learned the business side before eventually teaching himself bodywork and, just within the last year, painting. “Now I’ve figured out how to do it all,” he says. “Painting was the last piece of the puzzle.”

Still, Tim is quick to make clear that he did not learn alone. Monroe taught him how to write estimates, assess damaged vehicles, and collaborate with vendors, but his aunt, Kathy Blackwell, played a major role too. 

“She taught me a lot because I was around both of them a lot when I was younger. When I first came to work here, she showed me a lot about the office side of things and taught me a lot business-wise, too,” Tim says.

Though he had already been handling a great deal of responsibility within the business while Monroe was still living, Tim says the full weight of management settled on him after his uncle’s passing in 2021. Today, his role touches nearly every part of the business. His days include preparing estimates, communicating with customers, troubleshooting issues, overseeing equipment, and ensuring everything runs as it should. What he enjoys most, though, is the people.

“I think connecting with customers is always going to be my favorite part of the job,” he says. “I’m a people person, I’m very laid back, and I always try to put myself in their shoes and treat them the same way I’d want to be treated.”

That same mindset shapes the way he leads his team. Tim says leadership has taught him that everybody is different, and that people respond best when they know you are willing to work right alongside them, a principle he learned in part from Monroe, who preferred turning a bolt in the shop to sitting behind a desk. Tim believes that a hands-on attitude still defines Blackwell’s today, along with the standards Monroe and Kathy set years ago. 

“Our attention to detail is what sets the business apart,” Robertson says. “We’re not just going to throw something together and call it done. It’s our name on it, and that means something to us.” 

Even as insurance pressures have made the work more challenging, he said Blackwell’s continues to fight for quality and do things the right way.

Outside the shop, Robertson describes himself as a family man. He and his wife, Kim, are raising three children together – Colby, Praislyn, and Lilly – and he says camping has become one of their favorite ways to spend time together. 

“I’ve always been a family guy,” he says. “That’s one thing my uncle always asked us to do…continue and carry on what he started so everybody would continue to have their jobs and be able to provide for their families.”

As Tim continues the legacy of Blackwell’s Body Shop, he is determined to honor the people who built it, serve the people who trust it, and ensure that what his uncle started continues with the same care, pride, and personal commitment that first captured a young boy’s attention on the shop floor. 78