Roddel Family of Auto Body Specialties receives 2023 Boyd Hopkins Sr. Excellence in Family Business Award

Posted in Awards | January 2, 2024

The 2023 winner of the Boyd Hopkins Sr. Excellence in Family Business Award is the Roddel family of Auto Body Specialties.

For 20 years, the Prairie Family Business Association—an outreach center of the Beacom School of Business at the University of South Dakota—has presented the award to a Sioux Falls-area family business. Prior to the Dec. 4 award dinner, Jeff Scherschligt of family business, Pendar Properties, hosted a legacy tour of the newly opened Bancorp Building at Cherapa Place including the new headquarters of PFBA Visionary Sponsor, Eide Bailly LLP.

In 1950, Auto Body Specialties was founded as Service Parts Co. by Harley and Sallie Roddel in downtown Sioux Falls where they worked in auto repair and auto body. In the 1980s, the five Roddel children purchased the business and continued the commitment to quality products and service. Now in their third generation of family business, ABS is one of the leading automotive wholesale distributors in the upper Midwest. Today, ABS has multiple locations in South Dakota and Minnesota with a headquarters, warehouse, and technical center in Sioux Falls.

The Boyd Hopkins Sr. Excellence in Family Business Award was established in 2003 to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of family-owned businesses to the economy and the region. This award recognizes multi-generational family businesses with practices and policies that positively impact local business, as well as the neighboring community. It has been named in honor of Boyd Hopkins Sr. since 2010.

“Our mission is to help family businesses thrive through generations. This year’s recipient, Auto Body Specialties, displays a great example of what it means to continue a tradition of excellence through three generations,” said Stephanie Larscheid, executive director of Prairie Family Business Association. “We are grateful to the Hopkins Family of CorTrust Bank and their desire to recognize and celebrate family businesses in the Sioux Falls community in honor of their first generation leader, Boyd Hopkins, Sr. Congratulations to the Roddel family of ABS.”