Our Team:

Browncroft Garage isn't an impersonal assembly-line operation. You're dealing with real people, who combine nearly a century of automotive experience between them.

This is who we are:

Eric Koesterich is the owner, manager, chief mechanic, director of operations, and heart of Browncroft Garage.

The son of five generations of bakers, Eric decided early on to carve out a new path for himself. Born in Manhattan, he wasraised in the Catskills. He later moved and attended school in Toronto, Ontario. From there, he came to Rochester, where he studied at the Talmudical Institute of Upstate NY.

But working with motorcycles and cars was what Eric wanted to do, and after working as a teenager at various garages, he determined at age 19 to become a master mechanic and the owner of his own garage.

He achieved his ambition at the grand old age of 22. And since then he's gotten well over two decades of automotive experience under his belt as an ASE-certified master technician, and as the owner of what many people say is the best automotive shop in Rochester.

Eric's hobbies include fishing and travel, and he's visited places as distant as South America, Uruguay, and Israel. He lives in the city at home with Mary and their three children.

Glenn Mulder is the son of parents who immigrated from Holland to Canada after World War Two, and then came to the United States and Rochester.

Glenn was born at Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester. But, like Eric, Glenn's been a traveller. At seventeen, he joined the Navy, serving on the nuclear submarine, the Jacksonville, and his tours of duty as bosun's mate took him "all over the place" -- including the Red Sea during the time of the Iranian War.

Returning to civilian life, Glenn took a job at a machinist's shop and soon moved up to automotive mechanics, working for Cadillac and General Motors.

Now Glenn's an ASE-certified master automobile technician, and an ASE-certified engine technician, as well as a certified New York State auto technician. And in addition to his ASE truck school certifications, Glenn also has certification in L-1 advanced level diagnostics. Which may be why he's been honored to receive both the General Motors Cadillac Silver Award, and the General Motors Cadillac Gold Award for 2000.

The one-time Aquinas Institute student now has children of his own, a son named Owen and a daughter, Brianna. His hobbies include "crableg shrimp, chopping wood, and fixing old cars." He's the proud owner and restorer of three antique beauties of his own. Click here to see a few of them.

Theo Schnaufer was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, and grew up in Yonkers, New York.

He's lived and worked in Rochester since 1979.

Like the rest of the people at Browncroft, Theo developed an interest in cars at an early age. He started out souping up vehicles at age 15, and by 21 he began working as a full-fledged automotive mechanic.

Now a full-fledged ASE-certified technician, Theo is also active in neighborhood work as a member of the Beechwood Neighborhood Coalition. He sings with the choir of the Brighton Presbyterian Church, of which he is an active member, and his hobbies include rigorous Triathalon training.

Norm Truax was born in Cuba -- Cuba, New York, in Allegheny County.

Norm has worked with cars since he was a high school sophomore, eventually receiving formal training in automotive mechanics at BOCES. He's now an automotive technician with well over twenty years experience.

Family is the center of Norm's life. He originally moved to Rochester to be with his daughter, and his parents soon followed. He now lives with his beloved wife Dawn in the Rochester area.

His fellow mechanics say that of all the Browncroft team, Norm is the most devoted to the automotive life. His hobbies are "mechanical work and electrical work, period."

Louis Palmerini joined the Browncroft Garage automotive team last year and is its newest and youngest member.

Louis' parents arrived in the United States from their native Italy thirty-three years ago. Louis and his sister Fanny were born soon after.

Louis attended Cardinal Mooney High School here in Rochester, which is where he was introduced to his lifelong passion -- working on cars, which he's been doing ever since.

Louis does have other interests. "Food," he says. Although you wouldn't know it, since he makes it a point to work out regularly at Samson's Power House gymnasium here in the city.

And despite surface appearances and rumors to the contrary -- no, he is not actor Vin Diesel doing research for a film role as a crack automotive mechanic.