Frank Galeana, 80, owned Galeana Automotive Group dealerships in Michigan, S.Carolina, & Florida
Hoodoo
Frank Galeana: Worked hard to grow a dealership
BY JOE ROSSITER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
http://www.freep.com/article/20100425/NEWS08/4250458/1010/News08/Frank-Galeana-Worked-hard-to-grow-a-dealership
A successful career in automotive sales requires dedication, long hours
and hard work, dealers and sales staff say.
Frank Galeana was equipped with all those options.
Mr. Galeana owned the Galeana Automotive Group, which included Van Dyke
Dodge in Warren, Saturn of Lakeside and Saturn of Warren and Galeana
Chrysler Jeep and Kia in Columbia, S.C., and Galeana Chrysler Jeep Dodge
and Kia in Ft. Myers, Fla.
He died Tuesday of lymphoma at his Florida home in Naples. He was 80.
Galeana and his wife of 29 years, Jerry, also owned a home in Livonia.
"You don't get to the level that he achieved without working from
daylight to dark," said his longtime friend, Tom Pappert, former
Chrysler vice president of sales and service from 1981 until his
retirement in 1998. "It's not an industry that caters to slackers. You
either stay with it or you fail. Obviously, Frank was a spectacular car
man as well as a terrific individual, and he always demanded performance."
Born in New York City, Mr. Galeana was a staff sergeant in the Air Force
prior to graduating from New York University in 1956 with a degree in
business and advertising. He immediately struck out for Detroit and a
sales job with Ford Motor.
During his 11-year association with Ford, he worked in corporate sales,
calling on dealers throughout a region that encompassed Latin and
Central America, the Caribbean and Africa. Through it all, associates
said he never lost sight of his ultimate objective -- to run his own
auto dealership.
That first opportunity presented itself in 1969, when he purchased a
Dodge dealership in Saginaw. He sold it a few years later and bought Van
Dyke Dodge in Warren in 1974. The operation has consistently ranked
among Chrysler's top dealerships nationally in terms of volume and
profitability.
"He was a self-made man who started with nothing and made it all on hard
work," said his wife. "The car business was his passion and his life,
and he knew it from the inside out."
A connoisseur of fine cigars, Mr. Galeana enjoyed fishing in Key West
and golfing with his buddies for relaxation.
Besides his wife, survivors include sons Carl Galeana, Frank Galeana and
Brian Evans; a daughter, Roseann McBain; Mr. Galeana's first wife,
Theresa Krantz; one brother; 10 grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.
A funeral mass is to be May 1 at 9:30 a.m. at St. Aiden's Catholic
Church, 17500 Farmington Road, Livonia. Family visitation precedes the
mass at 8:30 a.m. with public visitation at 8:45 a.m.
The body will be cremated after the service.
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