At 90 years old, Don Couture Sr. just started a new business, albeit a nontraditional one.
Mr. Couture, who lives in West Toledo, recently started mowing his neighbors’ lawns. But he’s not following an ordinary business model: He doesn’t charge for his services or seek to make a profit. He bought a commercial riding lawn mower and decided to use it to cut his own grass — and grass beyond his yard.
“I’m just gonna take it upon myself to go ahead and cut it,” he said. “I handed [my neighbors] a slip of paper with my name and number and …it’s free.”
Mowing lawns around the neighborhood is just the latest project Mr. Couture has taken on in recent years. Throughout his life, he has kept himself busy with unique hobbies and odd jobs that improve his own and others’ households.
“To keep me going, I seem to have projects,” Mr. Couture said. “I kind of bounce around on projects every year.”
His daughter, Lori Couture, concurred.
“He’s project driven,” she said. “He’s just been go, go, go for our whole lives.”
Mr. Couture has three daughters along with Lori. His son, Don Couture Jr., passed away a few years ago.
He’s also a grandfather of 13 and a great-grandfather of 16.
Family is clearly important to Mr. Couture. Along with the many antiques lining the walls of his home, clocks hang in one room displaying the current time in the location where each of his daughters lives.
“I’m proud of them,” Mr. Couture said.
And the pride goes both ways. Lori Couture said growing up with such an active father who always wanted to do more for her and her siblings has created the same instinct in her.
From the time they were young, Mr. Couture was a hard worker and enjoyed what he did. He worked at Libbey for about 15 years before starting at Johns Manville. He became an industrial engineer there and stayed until he retired.
Even after retiring, he kept wanting to work. At one point, Johns Manville brought him back for a special project.
“Somebody told me, ‘Give them a ridiculous [money] figure.’ And they said, ‘Fine.’ And I went back to work…for this project,” Mr. Couture recounted.
During all of this, Mr. Couture wasn’t content just with a full-time job. He also kept himself busy doing things around the house and, for a while, working part-time for Bohl Equipment.
He would often help the Bohl family with their own odd jobs, from cutting grass to fixing a speedboat to painting their cottage. Even while he was working full time elsewhere as well, he had several people working for him as he helped out the Bohl family.
Sometimes, the Bohl family would fly him over to Pelee Island to help out on these different tasks.
“That was always just a part-time job,” Lori Couture said. “He’s just always been a man on the go. Always. Always helping, always doing something. He just doesn’t stop.”
As part of that job, he would sometimes help transport antiques to different locations. From Florida to the West Coast to Central Park in New York, Mr. Couture said he brought antiques to shows nationwide.
Though he has traveled far with antiques, he also appreciates them close to home. Throughout his house, there are many different kinds of antiques — from antique guns and knives to beautiful old furniture.
He also loves model trains. His basement is full of model railroads and trains with intricate environments created around them. Barns and windmills and small people and trees make up the detailed world that surrounds each train.
Mr. Couture has photos going back decades showing him with different model trains. He acquires them in different ways, including online auctions today. Recently, he bought a collection from Germany, which he said is the cream of the crop of model railroading.
Not all of Mr. Couture’s projects are quite as consistent as his love for model trains. Sometimes, they are seasonal or involve fixing something here or there around the house. When Mr. Couture moved into his new house, there was no shower upstairs even though there are two bedrooms, and he took it upon himself to add one. He also put in a sprinkler system one year, another important component for a well-manicured lawn.
These days, he has a red pickup truck sitting on his driveway which he is working on refurbishing. While doing so, Mr. Couture may be able to hear barks from the dog he sometimes dog-sits.
But no recent project has exemplified so much about Mr. Couture as his lawn mowing business. He does it simply because he enjoys it and because he enjoys helping others.
That’s why he went out and bought the Scag Freedom Z mower he rides, and why he likes to take it out of his garage (which he also considered renovating) on a nice day to help beautify the neighborhood.
He even mentioned wanting to get a trailer, so that he can drive the mower to other neighborhoods and help out there.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll see Mr. Couture taking on a project in your neighborhood soon too.
First Published July 20, 2022, 12:00 p.m.
