06/20/2025
To My Pop, Nick Cioffe — With Love and Eternal Pride
It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years since you left us, and not a day has gone by that I don’t think of you. I miss your laugh, your smile, your strength and the way you encouraged all of us. You pushed us all to do better, not for recognition, but just because you believed in our potential.
Finding this FMC letter brought it all back. I remember when you transitioned from working under diesel engines to becoming a foreman and mentoring fellow mechanics and “Sanmen”
But even when you left the floor, you never left the work behind. Never a day passed, where you weren’t willing to get down on a creeper, even with your jacket and tie on, to show a fellow mechanic how to make a repair. You empowered those around you, taught with quiet strength and always looked for a better way to get the job done.
Although you never went to engineering school, you thought like an engineer. You were a problem-solver, a systems-thinker, a practical innovator. Whether it was trucks from Mack, Autocar, Elgin or Freightliner, your insights shaped them, not just to run, but to run more efficient and smarter.
I remember well:
➤ Your redesigned hinged fuel cap so drivers wouldn’t leave them behind on the gas tank at fill-up. I still have the award they gave you with the sales reps tie sticking out of the gas cap!
➤ Your upgrades to Mack power steering modules for greater control and less strain.
➤ Your improvements to frame structures for durability and service access.
➤ The polished concrete finishes you pioneered in service bays to keep them wash-friendly, and resistant to oil and grime.
➤When taking delivery of new trucks your giving the Mack hood ornaments to the drivers, knowing that they were going to disappear anyway...
➤ Allowing, for the first time, City Sanitation trucks to have the driver's baby's names on the door or hood, thus empowering them to take personal pride in their trucks.
➤ And one of your most forward-thinking ideas, trench-style service bays with runoff troughs to catch oil, antifreeze, and waste fluids before they could seep into New York City’s storm drains or water supply, and so many more.
What amazes me most?? Is how many men, now my age 66 and older, still talk about you forty years later. Guys who were in their twenties and thirties, when they first worked with you, still remember your firmness, your genuine fairness, your leadership.
You shaped more than engines, you shaped young and old man’s lives. This FMC letter confirms that. Your insight, your dedication, and your ideas made things better for an entire city of 2000 trucks, 7000 men and still, you never made a big deal of it. That was your way.
You weren’t just fixing problems, you were designing solutions before people even knew they had problems. You created efficiencies, mitigated risk, and you did it with such grace. That mindset — to leave everything better than you found it — shaped my life. It’s become the compass I’ve followed for over 40 years. Learn one, do one, teach one.
The men you led, the systems you built, the lives you touched — your legacy isn’t just in steel or concrete. It’s in the way people still speak about you, four decades later, with respect and warmth. It’s in the building New York City graciously named after you. "The Nicholas Cioffe Borough Repair Shop". It's endearingly referred to as the “Choffe” Shop. (10500 Ave D)
I am proud to be your son. Proud to carry the name Cioffe. Proud to walk the roads you helped keep clean and clear of snow.
I love you, Pop, eternally.
Forever your son,
Tommy
