Truck driving and family support go hand in hand. Many families have members who go back two or even three or more generations as truck drivers and even though, generally, one family member is out on the road driving, there is much support at home to keep that driver out there earning a living.
I’ve read stories of how fathers and sons and daughters work together to maintain the family truck, along with the younger ones, learning to love the road while as kids, just riding with dad and appreciating trucking. There are many tales of a young man getting married and starting out as an owner operator who, while out on the road, has a young bride at home who may not have had much training, but is quick to learn and execute bookkeeping, business calls, licenses and permit applications, and more.
Michael Archiere of Danbury, CT, grew up in an extended family of truck drivers. His father Pat and Pat’s brother Tony both owned trucking companies, hauling sand and gravel, using a variety of dump trucks, while being hired by the hour. Mike drove for years for both his father’s business, P.W. Archiere and Sons and for Uncle Tony’s outfit, and both owners had a big preference for Brockway trucks. Mike (62) said that when he was a kid in the 70s and 80s, his father had a 1969 Brockway 361 which was a popular and common style around the Danbury area. In all, Pat had five trucks, all Brockways, which included a triaxle and a ten-wheeler.
Mike and his father once went to Cold Spring, NY to visit Allen Coal, which was a large trucking outfit that originally hauled coal, but by that time was dealing with sand and gravel, with a fleet of Brockways. Coal was known as the creator of a unique pickup truck called the “Husky Pup” that utilized a Brockway cab with cut-down parts.
Similar to Mack Truck’s use of the bulldog hood ornament, Brockway’s mascot was the venerable sled dog – the Husky. Mike and Pat visited Coal just to see the truck collection but wound up coming home with a tri-axle Brockway 361 and a ten-wheeler model 358. Mike’s mom, Barbara, wasn’t too happy with that. They rebuilt and painted the 361 triaxle a “beautiful blue” and it was operated by Mike for quite a long time. Mike’s brother, Bobby, drove the 358 when they both worked for their dad.
Pat Archiere also had a 1971 361 tractor and dump trailer he hauled with. During that time, Tony was operating a ‘72 model 361 painted yellow. Both Pat and Tony owned R and B-model Macks, as well. Mike drove for Tony and ended up substituting for his uncle after he broke his leg by “putting the truck over” at the landfill. Prior to that, “the boys” were too young for driver’s licenses, but Mike recalled driving with Tony in the passenger seat a lot before he had a license. Along with helping his father maintain his trucks, Mike, along with Tony’s sons, helped his uncle with his trucks. They all worked together in the 80s and early 90s, up until Tony retired from trucking in 1995.
Tony bought a 1975 Brockway 761 in 1984 in Long Pond, PA. Originally, it was a triaxle dump truck with a 270 Cummins engine linked to a 6-speed transmission and a 56,000-pound rear end. Tony and his son Joey drove the truck until 1995 when it was parked and retired. Shortly after, Tony took a job working for the City of Danbury.
The truck ended up in Mike’s yard and, not too long after, Uncle Tony was diagnosed with cancer. Mike promised his uncle that he would restore the truck and take it to Cortland, NY for the big annual Brockway show, held where the trucks were originally made. Mike can remember his uncle saying it wouldn’t be possible to restore the truck as it was “junk” at that point. In 2007, Tony passed away, and then the family decided to start the lengthy restoration process. It wasn’t an easy (or cheap) endeavor, and many “surprises” slowed down the work, but the crew soldiered on.
They found the truck to be in very bad shape, especially the interior, which had been destroyed by the rusty roof and cab back leaking. After attempting to get the engine started it was found that it was seized and a rebuild was in order. That’s when Mikes’ sons, Patsy and Michael, along with a good friend, Todd Gregor, started to tear the truck apart. Jim’s Welding in Danbury repaired the back fenders and the leaky roof. The interior was stripped, then the rebuilding began, but progress was slow.
The body was cut off along with the tag axle. The heavy rears were removed, and the frame was shortened seven feet. 38,000-pound rears from a Mack, donated by Mike’s father Pat, were installed along with rebuilding the engine. The family invested in another Brockway, a single axle 761, for parts, as Tony’s truck had well-worn parts, including the bumper, grill, battery boxes, hood, fenders, air and fuel tanks. All these parts were added to Tony’s truck, and the worn parts were put on the donor truck, which they sold, to help offset the costs. Dan Baldwin, who Mike referred to as a “Brockway guy,” provided shutters for the radiator and a heater core. Parts for the 700 series Brockways are scarce, as they were only made from 1975 to 1977.
In 2020, Mike was diagnosed with cancer. Because of the uncertainty of his condition, it was decided to finish the truck once and for all. Many people chipped in money, including Mike’s parents, “the boys” and Todd with the goal of bringing the tractor to the 2021 show while working on it daily. Because of Covid-19 shutdowns, there was more time to work on the tractor.
Uncle Tony was an avid race car owner and competed at the asphalt track, Danbury Racearena, back in the 1970s. Mike said the race cars were “old coupes.” Since Tony’s car was painted orange and numbered 53, the restored Brockway was painted orange with that number affixed to it. The names of the pit crew are painted on the rear fenders to mimic signage on race cars.
Mike mentioned that the family members were not trained mechanics, body guys or expert restorers – they learned as Uncle Tony and Pat became experienced, as they went along with their routine maintenance and repairs. Mike started as a young boy helping with his grandfather’s garbage trucks and his father’s trucks. Later, along with his young sons helping their father Pat, they restored his B-model Mack. They also worked with their Uncle Cary to convert his Autocar tractor into a 10-wheeler. By the time they started on Tony’s 761, the family, along with Todd and others, had some experience. Years before, Pat had built a 20’ x 30’ garage on the home property to do maintenance, and this is where Tony’s 761 was restored.
For years, Mike, his sons, and his father attended the annual Brockway Show, held previously in Cortland, NY where the trucks were built, but is now situated in the town square in Homer, just north of Cortland. Long before the restoration, the family gleaned a lot of information from the other truck owners at the show. Tony planned on going to the Brockway show with them in 2007 but was too ill to make it. Before Tony died, Mike promised him that they would take the 761 to the Cortland show – Mike hopes Uncle Tony can “see” it enough to be proud of the restoration.
The Brockway’s restoration was finalized in 2021, in time to take it to Cortland for the show. A few months before that trip, Mike’s 761 attended a show in Bethlehem, CT. Also on display at that show was Bob Manchester, who has a large trucking business nearby. Mike has always appreciated Bob’s trucks, especially a blue Brockway 760 tractor. At the show, Bob told Mike that his 761 was a real show truck, and he thought it could be a winner. Mike was happy with the compliments coming from Manchester and commented to me that the Brockway owners and fans at the shows are all really nice people.
While at the show in Bethlehem, a man spent quite a while photographing Tony’s 761. Mike began talking to him and discovered he made toy trucks. The following year, the man came to the show in Bethlehem and showed Mike pictures of the model he made of the Brockway. Mike said the detail was amazing. The man said it would cost a fortune to sell the model, and that he had built it for his own personal collection of trucks.
Fast forward to Homer a few months later and, it turns out, the 761 won People’s Choice and, a year later, it earned the same trophy again! Needless to say, the Archieres were ecstatic. The 761 isn’t shown at too many truck shows but regularly attends and wins trophies around the Danbury area. Mike only showed the 761 once at the Bethlehem show, but Mike’s father exhibits his B-model Mack regularly there. Another show is one in nearby Norwalk, whose director is suffering from pancreatic cancer – and it raises money for early cancer detection. For the Archiere family, attending the Cortland and now Homer show is the main truck show activity for them. Father Pat takes his B-model Mack to the Macungie show, organized by the Antique Truck Club of America, but the 761 has yet to make that trip.
Mike has been married to Patty Ann for 44 years and they have two sons, Patsy and Mike Jr. Patsy’s wife is Kayla, and they share daughter Brooklyn and son Patsy Jr., who at age seven, already loves working on the truck. Mike Jr. is divorced and has a son named Jayden.
Mr. Archiere works at Earthmovers, Inc, which does excavation work, road building and paving plus aggregate material handling. Mike drives a straight truck tanker with all the service items on the rear maintaining the large earth moving machinery in the field. He was recently provided with a new Mack MD with a 1,000-gallon tank, powered by a Cummins engine, and an automatic transmission. Not only does he refuel diesel, but he also performs oil changes, does greasing, and even mechanical work, when needed. The company has all types of earth working machinery, including crushers, to recycle cement, asphalt, and other types of debris.
Michael’s Uncle Cary, brother to Pat and Tony, was also in the trucking business and had a 1974 Autocar. Cary wanted to restore the tractor at the same time Mike was working on the 761. One night after working on it together, Mike went home to find that Cary had suffered a fatal heart attack in his pickup truck on the way home. Since then, the old Autocar has been parked at Mike’s house, so it was decided to start working on it last summer. He and the boys began cleaning it up, but Mike stated that he works at a regular job and money can be tight, saying, “I won’t go as crazy with this restoration as the Brockway, but I’m trying to finish it before something happens to me. I know I don’t have the years I had with the Brockway, but we’re still trying to get it cleaned up.”
Tackling this and the many other restoration projects is a testament to the closeness of the Archiere family, along with dear friends, who banded together for a single cause and through grit, hard work, and determination (and money), were able to successfully restore Uncle Tony’s award-winning Brockway 761. Mike said he will continue to attend the Brockway show, and despite his cancer levels going up, he’s managing it well. He gets tested every three months and hopes he’ll continue to have good health for the foreseeable future.
Thank you to Mike and the entire Archiere family for providing photos of the 761 during restoration. For more details about Brockway trucks, refer to my colleague Mark Harter’s history of the brand in the June 2024 issue of 10-4 Magazine. But, in the meantime, enjoy these pics I took of the Archiere Brockway at the show in Homer, PA last year. Built to honor their Uncle Tony, this beautiful ride is a testimony to their love and closeness as a family and will forever be a symbol of what the Archiere family is all about.