Fame came to local man on Letterman

Nearly 21 years to the day Dick Assman became a household name thanks to David Letterman, the Regina gas jockey passed away Monday. He was 82. Assman catapulted to fame after a July 1995 newspaper ad announcing he was moving to a new gas station caught Letterman’s attention. Letterman jumped on the comedic opportunity Assman’s name provided and ‘Assmania’ began.

“He was very shocked that they made such a big deal of the name. The name has been around for a number of years,” said Marlene Leir, Assman’s sister. Assman is a German name and is properly pronounced OSS-man.

The night Letterman made Assman famous, he had never even heard of the talk-show host.

“He mentioned my name one night on the show and a guy phoned me from Yorkton and said, ‘You were on the Letterman show.’ I said, ‘Who is Letterman?’ Usually by 8 or 8:30 I go to bed because I’m up at 4:30 a.m., so I had never watched the show,” Assman said in an interview with the Leader-Post in 2000.

Assman would come to know well who Letterman was when he was invited to appear on the Late Show.

On Aug. 18, 1995, Assman, wearing his Petro-Canada hat, stood in front of a packed studio audience with Letterman. During the show Letterman commented on Assman’s handshake. “It just occurs to me, this guy pumps gas for a living. He’s got a hold of that nozzle,” Letterman said.

Assman worked as a gas station attendant almost his whole life. He was born south of Melville in Neudorf on Feb. 14, 1934, to Adolf and Elizabeth Assman, the third of nine children.

“He never was married, he never owned a house or no kids, and so when he was retired in that little short time there he said to me, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself,’ ” Marlene said.

Assman lived a simple life except for his 15 minutes of fame. He never travelled far except for the trip to New York to see Letterman.

“He didn’t need a lot to be happy, but he liked to be with people, that was the big thing. He liked to be with people,” Marlene said.

Two weeks ago, Assman worked his last day at the Petro-Canada on south Albert Street. He then went into the hospital to have a stent put into his heart. On Monday he was released and went to stay with Marlene and her husband Don. The two had made up a bed for him and planned to nurse him back to health.

“Him and I were sitting here waiting for the Blue Jays to come on. And we were talking sports and then he had this burning sensation in his stomach,” said Don.

The couple called an ambulance to take him back to Regina, he passed away shortly after.

A celebration of life will be held at Speers Funeral Chapel, 2136 College Ave., on Monday at 1 p.m.