A 'zest for people': Wickstrom family remembers public face of Roselle dealership

Before the Walter E. Smithe brothers and Peter Francis Geraci earned their place in the Chicago TV commercial pantheon, there was Dan Wickstrom.

Wickstrom's charisma made him the public face of Dick Wickstrom Chevrolet in Roselle, a dealership that's stayed in his family for nearly 60 years.

To call the car salesman a local celebrity may be a bit of an overstatement. But that's not to say his starring role in commercials from the 1980s and 1990s should be overlooked.

Wickstrom embodied a cast of original characters and the best Chicago cliches. In one 30-second blast from the past, he played Dan "Van" Wickstrom, a Van Halen-listening van pitchman who sported a better mustache than the Empire Carpet man.

"Anybody who grew up around here saw those commercials," his nephew, Jared Wickstrom, said.

Family members are remembering Wickstrom's passion for the car business and his lively personality. Wickstrom, who lived in Bloomingdale, died Sunday morning from liver disease. He was 61.

"The car business is kind of just what we did," Jared Wickstrom said. "It's in our blood. Our family has always been very close. He's always been very close to his brothers and sisters, and he always had a big sort of zest for people."

As the youngest of six, Wickstrom shared a strong bond with his siblings. His late father, Dick, a World War II veteran, founded the Chevrolet dealership in June 1963.

"He worked for General Motors previously, and it was important for him to have a lasting legacy that would provide his family the means to do everything they wanted to do," said Jared Wickstrom, a third-generation principal at the Irving Park Road dealership.

His uncle grew up in Roselle, Medinah and Bloomingdale and graduated from Lake Park High School, where he was a football player and gymnast.

Like his siblings, he started working at the dealership from a young age. His older brother, Casey, Jared Wickstrom's father, worked as a porter until he went to college.

All four brothers - Casey, Danny, Terry and Tim - took over the business from their dad. In 1984, Tim Wickstrom left to open a Ford dealership in Barrington.

The remaining three brothers were equal partners until Terry's retirement in the early 2000s. As a fixture in the Roselle community, the dealership supported local charities, youth sports and veterans groups.

After General Motors filed for bankruptcy in 2009, the dealership was among about 900 originally slated to close, but the automaker reversed course, allowing it to stay open. Jared Wickstrom said that's a testament to the support of customers and the resiliency of his father and uncle and their employees.

"We didn't feel that we should close. We didn't want to close. We wanted to stay open," Casey Wickstrom said at the time.

Dan Wickstrom spent the first part of a roughly 30-year career overseeing the sales operations and then ran the service department. He retired about 10 years ago.

"He was very lighthearted," Jared Wickstrom said. "He had a big belly laugh you could hear from a mile away."

Wickstrom had a booming voice, "but in a very fun loving kind of way," his nephew said. He loved the Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull and the Marshall Tucker Band.

He and wife Catherine raised three children, and at family gatherings, he was known for his impersonations of Al Pacino and John Wayne.

In a nod to Wayne, he played "Duke" Wickstrom in another ad for the dealership. As the Dan "Van" Wickstrom persona, he wore a red jacket and looked like someone who would never put ketchup on a hot dog.

"They call me Dan 'Van' Wickstrom because I've got a thing for vans," he said in the 1990 commercial. "Favorite actor? Van Johnson. Favorite painter? Van Gogh. But my ultimate van is this beautiful Winnebago van from the Wickstroms."

Wickstrom was "probably our best sales trainer," his nephew said. But he also was a natural in front of the camera.

"He had a flair for the dramatic and loved to entertain people and make them laugh," Jared Wickstrom said.

Visitation is set for 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Salerno's Rosedale Chapel, 450 W. Lake St., Roselle. A funeral Mass is at 10 a.m. Thursday. Burial will be private.

Memorial donations may be made to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation or St. Walter School's endowment fund.