In 1960, Master Tire was founded by Charles (Chuck) Zeller and Francis (Fuzz) Herr in Evansville, IN. They started in a one-bay garage retailing passenger tires, and doing light service work. The story Fuzz told, was their garage was so small they had to pull the car in forward and change the front tires and then back the car in to change the rear tires. A few years later, Master Tire moved and ex
panded into a newly built four-bay garage with a customer showroom. They doubled their employees from two to four. “ I knew they were going to be successful when they built the new building on land that was previously used as St. Anthony’s Church convent”, said Father Ted Temple friend and loyal customer for 50 years. In 1978, Fuzz was diagnosed with cancer and passed away a short time later. In 1979, the second generation of the Zeller family came into the business. Chuck has 6 children, all of which at one time worked in the family business. Bryan started in the business in 1979 and now President of the corporation. David started in 1980 and is Vice President and runs the downtown location. His daughter Laura (Zeller) Rust started in the business in 1981 and is Office Manager. Chucks wife Betty has worked part time since 1979 and takes care of our Accounts Payable Department. Blake Zeller started part time learning the business just like his Dad and Uncle David did. Starting in the Service area changing tires, changing oil and doing general clean up while still in High School. Blake has gone on to graduate from University of Southern Indiana with a business degree. He now works full time at Zeller’s Master Tire as Assistant Manager greeting and waiting on customers. Just like Blake his sister Blair (Zeller) McClish started part time while attending the University of Southern Indiana and graduating with a business degree. She now is a full time employee at Master Tire & Accessories, Inc. assisting with Accounts Receivables and Accounts Payable. In 1983, the name was changed to Master Tire & Accessories, Inc. The company became more focused on full automotive service and installing aftermarket accessories. We expanded our location to 15 bays and hired 5 full time ASE certified mechanics. In the same year, we started a wholesale tire division with one employee and a pickup truck delivering tire in the tri-state area. Today the wholesale division has on line ordering, next day delivery in 3 different States Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. In 2000, we purchased a second location on Evansville’s West Side, Zeller’s Master Tire. It was a two-bay gas station built in 1960. Bryan and a few part time employees ran this location for two years until it was decided to build a new state-of-the-art service center with gas pumps. On January 27, 2013 Chuck Zeller our Dad passed away after a battle with Pancriatic Cancer. He owned and operated Master Tire for 53 years! He enjoyed every day coming to work. He enjoyed visiting with his long time customers and the new customers he met every day.
