CANYON CITY – Jackson Oil Inc. has changed hands, but longtime owner Greg Jackson says gas and heating oil customers should expect some important things to stay the same.

“It’ll be the same products, the same good service,” he said last week. “And all of the employees are staying on.”

The sale to Ed Staub & Sons Inc. was effective Aug. 1, but Jackson himself is staying on to help operate the company in a transition period of up to one year.

Then he and his wife Melody, who recently retired as Grant County librarian, are looking forward to retirement, relaxation and some travel.

“We’ll go to Lake Chelan, and I haven’t been into the Grand Canyon,” Jackson said.

Jackson said that at 65, he felt ready to retire. The business is getting more complex, with increasing regulation, and he was ready to turn it over to new owners.

“I’m leaving it in good hands,” he said, describing the new owner as a company with a strong work ethic and reputation for fairness.

Ed Staub & Sons already offers propane in the region from its John Day outlet. With corporate headquarters in Tulelake, Calif., the family-owned company serves a large region from Northeast California across Eastern Oregon to Southern Idaho.

Both Jackson and Ed Staub & Sons sent letters to the customers, notifying them of the change. David and Brad Staub, sons of the late Ed Staub, signed their company’s letter.

The letters thanked the community for its business and loyalty.

Jackson’s tenure in the business goes back nearly 40 years. His parents, Cecil and Kathleen, started the company in 1952, and Greg went into the business in 1971 after the death of his father.

He chuckles as he recalls his mother saying she would “put him on probation for six months.” If he failed, she planned to sell the business.

Then 25, Jackson postponed finishing college to take a stab at running the business. The arrangement worked, and he later finished his degree at Oregon State University – “on the 10-year plan,” he quipped.

Jackson credits longtime employee Bernie Carson for training him in the oil business.

“He was a great teacher, and he had excellent ideas.”

Over the years, the business grew. They built the gas station in Canyon City in 1977, and later bought out the Texaco distributorship from C.I. Kelly Hill, “my dad’s toughest competitor,” who then went to work for Jackson.

The company expanded with the addition of key-lock business, the forerunner to card-locks.

Today the company sells heating oil and other products, operates Shell gas stations in John Day and Canyon City, offers Pacific Pride fueling, and runs station-based convenience markets.

Jackson said the company grew over the years because of a loyal customer base that has included the lumber mills, local ranchers, businesses such as Iron Triangle and many individual accounts.

“I’ve been blessed with good employees and good customers,” he said.