Cory Bilicko
Managing Editor
Sheldon Grossman owned and operated Bixby Knolls Car Wash since 1977 with his wife Shell.
For almost 38 years, Sheldon Grossman owned Bixby Knolls Car Wash with his wife Shell. Sheldon, who was in his mid 80s, passed away last Wednesday, April 15 while at work in his business.
When the couple married in 1978, they made a pact that running a business together would never interfere with their relationship. For more than three decades, they kept their promise, while their full-service car wash has become a staple in the local community.
“We each put out the negative thoughts that might be detrimental to being in business together, and then we put out the positive things that would come from it,” said Sheldon in a September 2012 Signal Tribune story. “And you know what? We’ve never had any problems at all! We work well together.”
That year, the Grossmans celebrated 35 years in business at 577 E. Wardlow Rd. The car wash is located where it can easily be considered the “gateway” to Bixby Knolls.
Originally, the operation was built by Exxon Corporation as part of a string of car washes the oil company owned in the greater Los Angeles area during the 1970s. Sheldon, who owned several other car washes at the time, bought the business after the oil company was running it at a loss, he said. “They knew how to pump gas, but not [run] car washes,” he said.
Sheldon took over the establishment during a time when Long Beach was known for its many car dealerships along Long Beach Boulevard, and hoards of Volkswagen “Beetles” would roll into the lot, Sheldon recalled in 2012. “People used to ask me what I do particularly at the car wash ! ‘Well, I do rear windows on Volkswagen bugs,’ I’d tell people, and I’d get a laugh once in a while.”
Sheldon was a member of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce, the Long Beach Rotary, the board of directors for the California Car Wash Association (for which he served as president for two years), a board member of the Western Car Wash Association, a member of the board of directors of the International Car Wash Association and a charter board member of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association.
The Signal Tribune will publish a more extensive article about Sheldon in next week’s issue.
