Thursday, January 29, 2004
New Richmond News
Business founder Dolores Warner
dies
A founder of one of New Richmond's most successful businesses has died.
Dolores Warner passed away Sunday at United Hospital, in St. Paul, where she had been hospitalized since the end of December.
Together with her husband, Ron Warner, Dolores went into business in 1947 as the owners of an auto repair business later to become known as Warner's Dock.
Dolores Warner (nee Karis), was born in the Price County village of Prentice and raised in the Bruce area in Rusk County, Wis.
When she was 16, her parents, John and Klara Karis, moved the family to Clear Lake.
The Karis family became friends with the Warner family, who lived in Deer Park. Ron and Dolores met at a dance and were married in 1941.
They became interested in getting into what was then an auto repair business owned by Bill Mack, of New Richmond.
On their sixth wedding anniversary, July 22, 1947, the Warners bought the business from Mack and founded what was to become Warner's Dock. From those humble beginnings, the Warners grew their business (Warner's Direct Service, originally in the location of the former Cenex gas station) into one of the largest distributors of boats and marine equipment in the upper Midwest.
A decade later, the Warners bought the building that now serves as company headquarters on North Knowles Avenue, moving into what had been a farm implement dealership. Boats were becoming a more important part of the business, so Ron and Dolores changed the name of their business from Warner's Direct Service to Warner's Dock.
The Warners later added snowmobiles and motorized lawn and garden equipment to their product and service lines.
The couple's sons, Greg, Gerry and Marlin, worked at the family business and later took over the operation. Warner's Dock celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997.
The family involvement continues into a third generation, with the addition of Gerry's son, Nate, and Marlin's son, Scott.
The company has been honored in recent years for setting volume sales records in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest.
