All in the Family | Hogan Muffler & Brake

Photos by John Burns

Curt and Carrie Hogan purchased their Topeka business from Cowan Muffler 37 years ago as newly married youngsters with a 2-month-old baby and little to their name.

Ken Cowan was retiring after running multiple muffler shops for several years and offered the one at 4018 SW 21st St. to Curt, who had been working for him.

“Young as I was at that point, my thought process was, if you gotta rebuild, might as well rebuild while you’re young,” Curt said. “And I’m not going to lose much because I don’t have much.”

After a half a year on the job by himself, Curt, 20, said he called his 17-year-old brother, Kevin, and asked him to come work for him.

“He said, ‘Do you have enough to keep us busy?’ I said, ‘No. But I’m tired of playing one-handed solitaire until I get things rolling.’ So, he came, and we played two-handed solitaire and got the business rolling. Thirty- seven years later, he is still with me,” Curt said.

Curt and Carrie have had two more sons and multiple grandchildren since then. All three sons have worked for the family business at some point, as well as one of their granddaughters, Curt said.

The business is up to eight employees now and has expanded over the years with the addition of outbuildings, bay spaces and equipment. Even after all these years, Hogan’s bread and butter remains custom exhaust fabrication and installation.

“My goal when I went into this at 20—and it’s still my goal today— was: When I retire, I do not want my standard of living to decrease. I don’t have to be rich; I want to be comfortable. But I wouldn’t mind being rich,” Curt joked.

Today, two of the Hogans’ sons are currently employed at the business—Ryan, the 2-month-old when the business started, is now the lead exhaust technician and their youngest, Tanner, is a service advisor. The Hogan boys each began working at the shop part time when they were 16, and they all worked summers and after school.

Curt said running a business with family “is not for the weak of heart.”

“It’s definitely a double-edged sword,” he said. “The nice thing about it is, I have complete trust in those that are in charge when I’m not available.

“The downside of it is, in all honestly, I’ve lost a lot of socializing with my brother and my sons. Because quite frankly, you work with them all day, you don’t want to see them every night.”

As the owner of the business, Curt said he expects certain performance levels from his employees, but even more so from his kin.

“I came to expect more from family because they’re family,” he said. “And that’s a natural feeling that business owners that have family involved run into.

“I’m not going to say we haven’t had our troubles. As a matter of fact, in the 37 years, my brother has been fired once and quit once. Both of them lasted less than 24 hours. Once cooler heads prevailed, it was obvious that it was just a blowup over the situation at hand.”

The middle Hogan son would probably still be at the business if it wasn’t for his dream job opening up, Curt said. Joshua Hogan took the job as head high school wrestling coach at Washburn Rural last year. Joshua also owns Hogan Lawn Care and coaches kids club wrestling as well.

Carrie Hogan is co-owner of the business but is medically retired after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She has been cancer-free for a few years but still fights the ravages of chemotherapy and radiation and hasn’t been active in the day-to-day operations for several years.

Looking into the future, the Hogan patriarch said the eventual plan is for his sons to take over the business.

“I feel great about the future, but I also feel a little bit of skepticism,” Curt said. “We’re traversing waters we’ve never traversed before, just trying to determine if this is the new normal or if we go back to something else.”

Curt said his goal is to make sure the business that he and his family have built over the years will be viable and able to support his children once they take it over.