16-04-2025
Galey's Marine Supply owner dies at 93, memorial set for showroom floor
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – One of Bakersfield's best known business families has lost its patriarch.
Galey's Marine Supply, which opened in 1938, said goodbye this month to 93-year-old owner Don Galey, son of the founder, Otto Galey.
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Mark Galey, grandson of the founder, said his father died at home peacefully in his sleep.
Galey's, one of about 5,000 boat suppliers in the United States, is the oldest dealership under one continuous ownership in California, a distinction the company has held for two decades or more. Those are the kind of credentials that give Galey, and his heirs the kind of gravitas to get things done in the industry.
Galey was one of the 'instigators,' he liked to say, of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, personally championing industry breakthroughs such as floorplan financing.
The store's longtime radio and TV jingle is etched in many memories: 'You don't have to join the Queen's navy to be a skipper and sail the sea. Don't get left high and dry, visit Galey's Marine Supply. There's nothing Galey's hasn't got, from a little putt-putt to a great big yacht. Your dream boat's so easy to find at Galey's Marine Supply.'
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Galey's, which first opened in Bernard Street, moved to the Bakersfield Auto Mall in 1999. Next Wednesday it officially leaves the Auto Mall to move to yet another location near Rosedale Highway and Landco Drive.
But first it will send off Don Galey in a way he would surely find appropriate – at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, on Galey's empty showdown floor at the Auto Mall.
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