The collision repair industry has lost a dedicated educator, volunteer and advocate with the passing of Marcus “Marc” Essig on March 30 at the age of 82.
Marcus “Marc” Essig (l) passed away March 30 at the age of 82. Marc is seen here receiving the King TUT award from I-CAR Regional Manager Bob Mickey in 2013.
Essig, who was surrounded by his wife Nancy of 53 years, daughter Lisa, son Marc Jr., and four grandchildren at the time of his passing, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
Born October 22, 1942, in Dallas, Oregon, Essig graduated from Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) in 1963 with a degree in auto body and paint. During his time at OIT, he participated in wrestling and football, playing both offense and defense.
Essig’s distinguished career in collision repair education began in 1970 when he joined Clackamas Community College as an auto body and paint instructor. He served as chair of the automotive department for 23 years before retiring from CCC in 1998 after 28 years of service. While at Clackamas Community College, he became interested in Individualized Learning Systems and spent two summers working with the State Department developing curriculum in this format.
In 1979, Essig began his decades-long relationship with the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR), serving as a program instructor and welding test administrator. He was recognized with the King TUT (Total Units Taught) Award for the Northwest region at I-CAR’s Western Regional Conference in 2013, highlighting his extraordinary commitment to industry education.
Essig served on the I-CAR Education Foundation Board of Trustees from 1990 to 1996, representing the education field and actively promoting the Foundation. He was also certified by the American Welding Society as a MIG weld test examiner and was ASE-certified in collision repair-non-structural, collision repair-structural, and automotive refinishing.
Following his retirement from Clackamas Community College, Essig and his wife Nancy funded an endowment for students in the Automotive Trades. Throughout his career, Essig worked throughout the Western United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and internationally in New Zealand and Australia.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, Essig was a licensed pilot, earning his certification before graduating high school, as well as a paint store owner and farmer who approached life with curiosity and dedication.
Industry professionals remember him as someone who worked hard but also knew how to enjoy life and the relationships he built throughout his extensive career in collision repair education.
“Marc Essig was a gentleman in every sense of the word. I had the pleasure of meeting him in the very early I-CAR days. He had a master ability to teach, and doing so was his passion certainly along the western US, but he was also the one they sent out to spread the I-CAR gospel to New Zealand and Australia as well,” said Chuck Sulkala, founder of the National Auto Body Council, and past chair of both I-CAR and the I-CAR Education Foundation (now Collision Repair Education Foundation. “While he was certainly a teacher by trade, more importantly, he was a friend to anyone who ever met him. Answering questions in that calm quiet manner and doing hands-on demonstrations was clearly his passion. While it has often been said that “Them that can do, them that can’t teach”, nothing could be further from the truth with Marc Essig. Even to the last time I had dinner with him in Phoenix several years ago with his close friend and former I-CAR Regional Manager, Bob Mickey, he was still talking shop about everything going on in the industry that he had retired from several years before.”
Sulkala continued, “It is often said that some people have made an impact in their life and that others should reflect on the qualities that this person brought about. My only regret is that we lived so far apart, from one side of the US to the other, but I was truly the one that missed out on so many years of learning and observing the very special talents that he had to offer. When they talk about the real leaders of this industry, it is not those with the loudest voice or the longest ability to speak, it is about those who care enough to share their talents and help train and mentor the youth of tomorrow. Marc was that special kind of guy. Having brought the industry to a better place through his teaching, we will never be able to fully comprehend how much this giant of a man played in betterment of the work we do in the industry we love. The instructor to the instructors, what a guy.”
Bob Mickey, former Regional Manager for I-CAR said, “Marc was a great motorcycle enthusiast, great golfer and great friend.”
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