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Prevost H3-45 motorcoach
Amsterdam, N.Y. — Brown Coach recently took delivery of two new 2020 Prevost H3-45s coaches. A Prevost customer since 1997 Brown Coach currently runs a total of 50 coaches along with its sister company Upstate Transit of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Located just 30 miles apart, the Brown and Upstate fleets share similar team colors and graphics that tie the two services together under one owner.
“We believe Prevost makes the best coaches on the road,” says Brown Coach Owner Steven R. Brown. “What keeps us coming back as a loyal customer is the company’s outstanding after-sale support. Their teams go above and beyond and make themselves available anytime, day or night and on weekends, to ensure our questions get answered and our equipment is performing at top level.”
In 1980, Brown Coach opened its doors to provide coach bus and coach service for the tri-city area of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy. The company has owned and operated Upstate Transit since 2005. Brown Coach acquired the transportation division from the Mathews Family, the Thomas School Bus dealer for upstate New York.
“When the principal in the company, Bruce Mathews, passed away, the family elected to focus on vehicle sales and service,” says Brown. “They approached us on possibly acquiring the business and we felt it would be a good fit as we were both in the same greater-Albany market. Instead of being one of four competitors, we now only have two.”
Brown is a mechanical engineer who dedicates his knowledge to making the products and systems on his coaches perform better and consistently ensure products from other industries work in his vehicles. His experience and expertise has proven instrumental in several Prevost products.
“I was surprised the Prevost engineering and support teams would be so willing to work with me to implement some of my ideas and make them fit into their coaches,” he says. “They joke around with me about what they have come to call the Brown Specs.”
Visit browntours.com or prevostcar.com for more information.
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Manchester, N.H. — The United States is facing a suicide crisis. Suicides have increased 33 percent since 1999 and are the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-34. In New Hampshire, where The LMC Groups’ headquarters is located, the youth suicide rate is 50 percent more than the national average.
Dawson Rutter of Commonwealth Worldwide Executive Transportation (left) with his son Dawson A. Rutter III—more affectionately known as D.A. After D.A. took his own life in 2017, Rutter established a scholarship fund in his son’s memory.
The crisis motivated LMC to choose the Dawson A. Rutter, III Scholarship Fund for its annual #GivingTuesday fundraiser. Dawson (known as D.A.), the 23-year-old son of Commonwealth Worldwide Executive Transportation’s Dawson Rutter, tragically took his life in 2017 after a long struggle with depression. D.A.’s father, Dawson Rutter, established the scholarship fund, which helps meet the financial needs of boys at The Fenn School in Concord, Mass., where D.A. spent his happiest years.
D.A. was an accomplished artist who won awards for his art at Fenn and beyond, so LMC decided to host an online art auction to raise money for the fund. Starting on December 3—#GivingTuesday—and ending on Friday, December 13, the auction will be accessible through The LMC Groups’ Facebook page, and all proceeds will be donated to the fund.
LMC Founder and CEO Kristen Carroll and LMC Ops Director Chris Hotham are acclaimed artists whose work is featured in several galleries nationwide, and they have donated the paintings and photographs for the auction. Carroll explained why LMC chose to support this charity:
As a business leader, I make it a point to speak publicly about my involvement in ongoing therapy as part of my personal wellness. Behavioral and mental health are as central to our overall vitality as is our physical health, yet even as we approach 2020, there is a stigma associated with mental health. Nearly all Americans will either experience depression in their lifetime or have someone close to them impacted. While suicide is a statistical rarity in the sea of depression, one suicide is too many.
As an organization that embraces health, transparency, and the dogged pursuit of joy, we want to shine a light on a struggle that so many face. We selected this fund for #GivingTuesday because we knew and loved Dawson Rutter III and know and love his father. We have team members and families who have been touched by suicide. We want to bring this struggle out of the darkness and into the light, so that conversations happen earlier, help is sought more often, and those we’ve lost are remembered for their lives and not for their deaths.
Anyone interested in supporting LMC’s #GivingTuesday fundraiser can access the auction on Facebook.
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John Mazzarella of American Limousine Service (1940-2019)
John Mazzarella, a longtime manager of American Limousine Service, has passed away at the age of 79 on November 18. He was laid to rest this past Saturday.
Mazzarella was just a kid when his older brother, Anthony, founded what would become American Limousine Service—himself a high school student. The Cleveland, Ohio-based company has been a true family-run service for more than 70 years; today, it is spearheaded by second-generation owners (and Mazzarella’s nephew and niece) Anthony Jr. (president) and his sister Mary Jo (director of sales). Mazzarella was instrumental in helping to grow and nurture the company’s expanding affiliate network.
Over the years, Mazzarella has held numerous positions within the organization, including vice president. He is also credited as a founding member of the National Limousine Association. He was a U.S. Army veteran.
Mazzarella is survived by wife Gloria; daughters Annette, Lisa, and Veronica; and several grandchildren and great-children.
We send our condolences and well wishes to the extended Mazzarella family, friends and loved ones of Mazzarella, and the entire American Limousine team.
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