Although Irish Hills Collision is just another family operated business, the story that started the business is very unique from any other. Dave Nagy, Sr. was born in the small town of Deerfield, MI, where he grew up on a farm. He started working on cars in his brother's collision shop in Deerfield. After some time, Dave and his wife Charlotte moved to the downriver area and opened two body shops. After some tough times with his two shops, he decided to close the doors and move his family to a simpler life in the Brooklyn-Irish Hills area. He pursued a career at Clift Pontiac-GMC in Adrian as a body shop manager. For ten years he operated the body shop for Clift and helped build them a new updated shop. However, like any other businessman, the thought of owning his own body shop still ran through his mind. In the late '80s, he found a piece of real-estate on U.S. Highway 12 with a small barn that he could not pass up from purchasing. His idea was to work night and weekends fixing friend's vehicles after he got home from his job at Clift just to make some extra money to support his family. After a few years, Dave had so many return customers and referral business, that he quit his job at Clift without telling his wife. He was sure that he could make a good living and support his family at his new business. His wife did not find out that he quit his job until she called him at Clift and they told him that he hadn't worked there in over a month. He began doing business as Irish Hills Collision in 1990.

After seven years of being in business, he again found that his customer base had grown more than he ever thought it would; so much so, that he had to expand his body shop and build a new paint shop. He expanded enough to cover what space he needed at the time and also to accommodate future sales growth. In 2007, his grandson Jeff Updike graduated with a degree from Central Michigan University in Accounting. After long talks, Jeff joined the company to help relieve some of the pressure from Dave and Charlotte. Since then, the company has enjoyed some of its most profitable years despite a downturn in the economy. So good in fact, that sometime in 2010 the company will be purchased from Dave and Charlotte by Jeff. Although the company may change hands, Dave and Charlotte have no plans of ever walking away from what they love so much. They will always be a part of the business that they started twenty years ago.