‘He Is Part of the Fabric of This Town’: C&H Auto, New Canaan Bid Farewell to Leo Lopez

Fourteen years later, C&H Automotive owner Steve Gaeta remembers clearly the day that Leo Lopez answered an ad to apply for a job at the Main Street gas station and repair shop. Lopez, an Ecuador native now 54 years old, had been in the United States just a few years when he filled out an application and returned a day or two later with 2-year-old Crystal, the youngest of his three kids, in tow. “He came back and said, ‘Sir, I really need this job,’ ” Gaeta, also a New Canaan firefighter, recalled Wednesday afternoon from the small office at C&H, a mainstay of downtown New Canaan that’s carved out a niche for superior customer service. “I hired him that day. I saw a good man that just wanted to work.