Fred O’Neill ’79: Working at the Car Wash

Fred O’Neill ’79 worked at gas stations and car washes throughout high school and college. In fact, his part-time job at a car wash helped pay his way through Fairfield University.

Though he enjoyed the experience, the business major dreamed of landing a big corporate job after graduation and putting the car wash industry in his rear-view mirror. “That was the plan,” he said with a chuckle, adding, “and it worked somewhat.”

After earning his bachelor’s degree, O’Neill was hired into marketing at Mobil Oil Corporation and assigned to several local retail locations as part of his training. Though his primary task was to better understand business operations, O’Neill quickly demonstrated his management skills by reviving a struggling car wash location in Norwalk, Conn.

At the time, many Mobil executives, including the CEO and president, lived nearby and frequented the car wash. Impressed with the location’s transformation, they offered O’Neill the opportunity to become a franchised dealer. Upon careful consideration, O’Neill resigned his corporate job and accepted.

In 1980, with a business loan and some additional financial help from his mother, O’Neill went into business for himself, becoming a franchised dealer for the car wash and gas station he’d revitalized. “That’s how the story began,” O’Neill said. “Growing the car wash business became my focus, and that’s what I did for the next 44 and a half years.”

In the decades that followed the launch of his entrepreneurial career, O’Neill built a legacy as a prominent business owner in Connecticut. He eventually purchased the car wash in Norwalk as well as the real estate beneath it. He rebranded the former franchise under his name and began to expand to new locations. At the peak of his career, O’Neill operated eight Fred’s Car Wash locations: five of his own, and three in partnership with a private equity group.

Modest and congenial, O’Neill credits the success of Fred’s Car Wash to his team, including his CPA wife, Jo-Ann, with whom he ran the business, and many loyal and hardworking employees. “I didn’t do this without a great family behind me,” said O’Neill, whose car washes were regularly recognized as the best in Fairfield County.

Among O’Neill’s most memorable accomplishments is his involvement in the car wash industry. As former president and ten-year board member of the International Carwash Association (ICA), O’Neill was an influential figure and leading voice in the industry, helping to shape its direction and future.

“I really enjoyed my time with the association,” he said. “It gave me the opportunity to travel the world and to meet the great families and unique characters who manufactured car wash equipment and operated car wash chains. But most importantly, it allowed me to share best practices for growing the industry for the benefit of everyone involved.”

O’Neill used his voice at the ICA to unite and promote the industry. His goal was for rival car washes to stop competing and to rally behind the idea that washing cars in commercial bays was smarter than washing them in driveways. “It’s certainly not easy to get entrepreneurs to stroll in one direction,” he said, “but I think we accomplished that.”

In 2025, O’Neill stepped away from the car wash industry, selling his five Fred’s Car Wash locations to Summit Wash Holdings, the parent company of Speeder’s Car Wash. As his name came down from the retail signs, O’Neill settled into a different chair and donned a new hat. Having retained ownership of the real estate, he became landlord to the new car wash proprietor.

As a young man fresh out college, O’Neill would have reveled at the prospect of this transition. After all, he had hoped his degree would take him far beyond the world of tunnels and bays and spotless rinse. But having spent his entire adult life building a successful car wash brand, O’Neill found himself less gleeful than grateful to the industry that he helped shape and that shaped his life in return.

For fostering his entrepreneurial spirit and courage, O’Neill credits Fairfield University. “My professors and friends at Fairfield made this happen,” he said. “They empowered, encouraged, and inspired me, and I cannot thank those people enough.”

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