Customers enjoy interacting with Buckley at Jack Morris Oil
A car pulls up, and Austin Buckley jumps into action. He greets the driver by name and begins pumping their gas at Jack Morris Oil in Columbia.
It’s a routine he does hundreds of time per day, and the 70-year-old says he loves every minute of it, both the activity and the interaction with people.
In an age when work ethic and Christian values seem to be in short supply, the man they call “Mr. Buck” is an example of both. The longtime Sunday School teacher at North Columbia Baptist Church rises every morning around 3 a.m. to read a chapter in the Bible and have prayer time. Work at the station doesn’t start until 7, but he usually arrives a few minutes after 6.
“Come early and stay late.” That’s his philosophy.
Rick Carney, the company’s director of operations, said Buckley fits what they’re trying to do with customer service and it’s something that isn’t easy to find in today’s age: a personal touch.
“He’s a perfect match for that because he loves people. I like to say a lot of people come here to visit Mr. Austin and talk and they get a little gas while they’re here,” he said.
It’s even to the extent that if people pull up while Buckley is gone to lunch, they ask where he’s at because they miss him, Carney said.
This is actually retirement for him. He’s been retired for eight years come October from the Pearl River Valley Electric Power Association, where he spent 40 years. Buckley said he started as low as you can get, a grunt, and worked his way up to superintendent of operations, doing everything in between along the way.
During his time with the utility cooperative he learned a valuable skill: how to deal with the Mississippi heat during the summer. It simply doesn’t bother him. That has served him well when he walked 15 miles per day around Columbia and now that he works outside at the gas pumps.
Buckley, who lists his hero as Davy Crockett and his parents as his greatest influence, started in December at Morris Oil and said he’s a diabetic and needs to stay as active as possible. Continuing to work does the trick.
“I get to see everybody. People come in joking, telling old stuff on me and me telling it on them. Kidding and carrying on,” he said. “I check ladies’ tires and old people’s tires and anybody if I see a tire low or any problem, I tend to it. I just like people.”
“The more I work, the better I feel,” he adds.
It’s all part of a lifestyle that values faith and family.
Buckley and his wife, Sherry, have been married 44 years. He describes her as “the only wife I’ll ever have” and “the best.”
They have two children: Their son, Brandon, works for Shell, and their daughter, Heather Singley, is the principal at Columbia Primary School. The couple also has six grandchildren, all boys, ranging from 1 to 16 years old.
“Our lives,” he calls them.
Buckley has taught Sunday School for more than 20 years, including 18 with his current class.
“I study the Bible. You cannot have the New Testament without the Old Testament. I love teaching the whole Bible,” he said. “You learn a lot of lessons from the Old Testament, but you learn about salvation through the New Testament.”
And as an interview wraps up, Buckley is back on his feet, out into the heat and ready to work and see his customers.
He wouldn’t have it any other way.
Pictured Above: Austin Buckley grins while pumping gas for a customer at Jack Morris Oil on U.S. 98. Since starting there in December, the longtime Columbia resident has become a popular fixture who enjoys interacting with drivers. | Photo by Charlie Smith
