When talking about the collision industry’s most influential women, Linda Holcomb more than fits the bill. Born in San Jose, California, Holcomb grew up in the post-war age of liberation for young people. In her zeal to start her working life, she liberated herself from college and went to work for Wilson Sales Co., the largest automotive equipment distribution company in Northern California. During the first two years she spent learning marketing and advertising on the job and became known as the first woman to ever enter the automotive equipment distribution industry.

    In 1970, Linda took a giant step in her career. She accepted a job with a new manufacturing company in Caracas, Venez- uela, where she handled all the marketing and sales for the first “Paint your car in 24 hours” concept model body shop. Being bi-lingual, Linda became the first woman member of their Chamber of Commerce. The prototype operation was a success and several others were cloned in other cities throughout Venezuela.
    Long Beach, California, was the next stop on her journey. In 1973, she started her own wholesale autobody equipment distribution company. Six years later, she branched out into manufacturing paint spray booths. Along with working as a dealer of autobody equipment plus manufacturing automotive and industrial paint booths, Holcomb became an active leader in collision industry politics as president of the Southern California Autobody Association Long Beach chapter, staying on the board of directors for ten years.
    Tragically Holcomb’s husband died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving her responsible for raising their son alone. At this time, Linda sold the spray booth manufacturing company.
    The age of computers was just beginning to enter into the body shop world. Seeing this as a new opportunity, Linda joined up with Akzo Nobel, marketing and selling their computer management systems. Later she moved on to become the CCC sales representative in Orange County.
    Unable to qwell her entrepreneurial spirit, the 1990s saw Holcomb in Palm Springs where she designed and opened the first state-of-the-art collision repair facility in the area with a down draft spray booth. She successfully ran that business with partners, before selling out in 1995 to Caliber Collision Centers
    Over the years, Holcomb has been a successful pioneer in bringing the newest technology into the body shop industry– be it spray booths, frame equipment, measuring systems, or air compressors.
    As a 5-year member of the Harbor Regional Occupational Care Center, San Pedro, Linda supplied the autobody training program with a paint booth at cost and installation of the booth for free.