According to family history, Lykins would give his high school principal a free tank of gasoline once a week so he could leave school early to work in the family business when needed. His father's work ethic was instilled in him at a very early age. For example, in 1963 there was a huge snowfall. Lykins' father, [image-nocss] Guy Lykins Sr., got him and his brother out of bed to shovel a path to the station. Although they only had one customer that day, since hardly anyone was out on the roads, his father demonstrated that customers come first.
"That's the way Don was. He was a superb salesman," Jim Parker, a retired Milford banker and lifelong friend told The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Lykins built a small heating oil business with his brother Guy Jr. into one of the largest private companies in the region.
"My dad spent his whole life in the oil business. He never had another job," Jeff Lykins, president of Lykins Cos., told the newspaper. "He started pumping gas when my grandfather, a farmer in Newtonsville, bought a White Rose service station in 1948."
Starting with two fuel delivery trucks and four employees, the Lykins Cos. now supplies more than a $1 billion worth of fuel annually with nearly 200 trucks and 200 employees. The company ranked eighth on the 2010 Deloitte Cincinnati USA list of the largest privately held companies based in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, said the report.
In recent years, Lykins started his own car leasing business, D&L Leasing, in Milford.
Lykins served the community in a variety of ways. He was fire chief of the Wayne Township Fire Department. He was the youngest person ever elected Mayor of Newtonsville, Ohio, at age 19, where he also served as fire chief and police chief. He served on the School Board for Northeastern High School, where he graduated.
And he was on the board of directors for the Ohio Petroleum Marketers Association for 12 years, two of those years serving as Chairman.
Lykins lived in Milford with his wife, Linda. He was father of Jeff and Mike Lykins and grandfather of Andrea and D.J. Lykins.
The family has requested donations to the Donald F. Lykins Entrepreneurial Foundation, C/O Bob Manning, Lykins Cos. Inc., 5163 Wolfpen Pleasant Hill Road, Milford, Ohio 45150.
CSP sends condolences to his family, his friends and his colleagues.
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