Tom Ganley, who built what grew into a 36-dealership car business based in Northeast Ohio, ran for U.S. Senate and Congress and took on Cleveland organized crime, died Wednesday at the Cleveland Clinic. He was 73.
Mr. Ganley got his start selling cars while still a high school student in Bedford. He bought his first dealership, Eastway Rambler, in Euclid in 1968 and within a year it became the nation’s largest American Motors dealership. The business that eventually grew into privately owned Ganley Automotive Group now comprises 36 dealerships and about 1,600 employees in Ohio and Florida. It is considered the largest auto group in Ohio.
“It’s tough,” said Lou Vitantonio, head of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association. He said he has known Mr. Ganley and other Ganley family members for 20 years. “I had a very special relationship with him and the entire Ganley family.”
Mr. Ganley was a generous person who helped a lot of people behind the scenes, Vitantonio said.
“He never asked for recognition,” he said. The public likely will never know a quarter of what Mr. Ganley did to help people, he said.
Mr. Ganley was involved in the automobile industry on national, state and local levels, Vitantonio said. He helped the Cleveland association and its dealer members on health plan issues, union negotiations, the annual auto show at the I-X Center and more, Vitantonio said.
When it came to car sales, Mr. Ganley was a fierce competitor with other dealers but always a partner with them on industry issues, he said.
“He was a large figure in the auto retail industry in this part of the world,” said Terry Metcalf, executive vice president of the Northeast Ohio Auto Dealers Association. “He was a big player.”
Mr. Ganley received the Louis E. Peters Memorial Service Award by the Society of Former [FBI] Special Agents in 2007 for his role in fighting Cleveland organized crime that led to the arrest of more than 20 people.
The award came after Cleveland organized crime figures tried to extort $500,000 from Mr. Ganley in the 1980s. He refused to pay and instead cooperated with the FBI, including agreeing to have his phone tapped and cameras and recording equipment put in his offices. He also wore a wire while meeting with the extortionists. The mob issued death threats and put a $1 million contract on Mr. Ganley and his family, leading to Mr. Ganley receiving an armored car and FBI agents moving into his home.
Mr. Ganley’s son Ken, now president of Ganley Automotive, recalled that he was in elementary school at the time.
“For a couple of years, FBI agents lived in our house,” he said. His father told the family that having the FBI there was the right thing to do.
Some of the FBI agents became his father’s closest friends, he said.
Ken Ganley said his father was the definition of entrepreneur. “Most of his risks would work out,” he said.
One of his father’s favorite professional activities was being a director of Independence Bank, a small bank in Independence, he said. “He adored that role.”
His father was a great motivator of other people, he said.
His father was also known for providing help to people who needed it, particularly police officers, including transporting family members in crisis using his own personal plane, he said.
Among his father’s favorite activities was attending the sporting events of grandchildren, Ken Ganley said.
“He was not a golfer. It was the business and family,” he said. “Those were really his two passions.”
Mr. Ganley, who had never held elected office, announced in 2009 that he would run for U.S. Senate as a Republican, seeking the seat vacated by George Voinovich. In February 2010, he instead changed directions and ran for the House of Representatives for the 13th District seat, eventually losing to incumbent Betty Sutton.
Mr. Ganley, who was involved in business-related lawsuits over his career, was hit with a civil suit filed a month before the House election that accused him of propositioning and inappropriately touching a woman. Mr. Ganley was indicted in 2011 on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, but the prosecutor dropped all charges following an investigation and interviews with the complainant, a married Cleveland woman. The related civil suit case was eventually settled. Mr. Ganley adamantly denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Ganley was a strong supporter of police and public safety. He was a spokesman for “Buckle-Up Cleveland” and was named “Man of the Year” by the Cuyahoga County Police Chiefs Association. He ran Crime Stoppers of Northern Ohio.
He was also involved in the National Automobile Dealers Association, including representing Ohio within the organization.
He is survived by his wife, their son Ken and three other children, and grandchildren.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ