When it comes to a career, Roeck finds the shoe fits

Chances are that if you need anything done having to do with leather or something mechanical, R.E. “Rock” Roeck will be happy to oblige you.

“If we don’t have it or we can’t get it, you probably don’t need it,” he says from his workshop attached to his house at French Creek RV Park in Custer where he is the manager.

While he works only in his spare time in his 30’x24’ workshop, he stays as busy as he wants to be, he says, relying on word of mouth and business cards — which says he can repair just about anything except a broken heart — to get the word out about his varied talents. 

Country Western and country gospel music plays non-stop in the room he calls “an old-time leather repair and fix-it shop, sorta like a working museum.” It is crammed with new and used boots hanging from the ceiling, pairs of boots and shoes in various stages of repair, nine sewing machines, saddles draped on sawhorses, horseshoes hanging from a metal bar, various pieces of equipment and shelves laden with supplies.

“If I live to be 100, I don’t think I could cram any more fun into my life than what I’ve already had,” Rock says about his many careers and financial ventures.