BUCYRUS–The longtime manager of Tractor Supply Company is turning in his red vest after dedicating his life to the only job he has ever known.

Frank Jerger, 75, is retiring in July after a 56-year career with the company. After a career that’s spanned several states. After helping three generations of customers with their farm supplies, fencing, tools, and home improvement needs.

“The customers have probably been my driving force. Let’s put it that way,” Jerger said. “I enjoy what I do because of them. You have all these super people that come in and they need help and most of the time they teach me something new every day.”

Jerger spends most days on the floor of the 2141 E. Mansfield Street business, not in his office.
He shows up at 5:30 a.m. – an hour earlier if a truck is due in that day – and is supposed to be off on Thursdays and “a Sunday or so,” but “sometimes that happens and sometimes that doesn’t.”

Sara Hoffman, the store’s assistant manager, said that her boss is so well-liked that if regular customers don’t see his white Honda truck parked outside, they wait to come back. “They come in and they want to talk to Frank. I feel like this guy is a legend in Crawford County.”

Jerger, who was born in Mansfield, Ohio, started his TSC career in 1966 at a small “hole in the wall” store there on the east side of old Route 430. He was the young salesperson who “put stuff together, unloaded trucks, waited on customers. You did everything back then.”

The draft, after two years, took him to the Vietnam War, where he served in the U.S. Army. Upon returning, Jerger was hired as the manager of a Tractor Supply in Buffalo, New York, then moved back to Ohio to oversee stores in Canton, Bucyrus, and Findlay.

Other management positions took him to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and eventually back to Mansfield to run the TSC on Ashland Road. Bucyrus beckoned him again when the Tennessee-based retailer launched “Project 110,” an undertaking to open 110 new stores.

In the early years, Jerger said, TSC catered more to the “urban farmer,” selling plow points, disc blades, and other parts needed for large farm equipment. Nowadays, he said, pet supplies and plumbing products are big sellers, along with lawn and garden items.

Tim Shroll, the owner of DT Petroleum in Bucyrus, remembers working for Jerger back in 1976 – his first boss right out of high school before college. “I had and still have much respect for him, not just as a boss but as a person,” Shroll said. “He is simply one-of-a-kind.”

Jerger, who lives in town with his wife, Tina, has a son and granddaughter in Texas. He has racked up countless awards during his tenure – Operation of the Year, Team of the Year, and Manager of the Year, to name a few. His last day on the job will be July 9.

“It might be one of the hardest things I gotta’ do but to me it’s the time to do it,” said Jerger.
“I’d rather have the younger people take over for the good of the community.”

Because this Crawford County legend is saying goodbye – to a company that has treated him well and a community he has come to love.

“TSC has been fortunate all these years. He will surely be missed,” Shroll added. “We need more Franks in the world.”