“I exceeded this goal by 2,800,” he told the Springfield Daily News, “enough for more than every man, woman and child in Springfield.”
A 1941 clipping in Ripley’s News-Sun file shows a neatly groomed man in rimless glasses beneath an announcement that he was headed for Quebec for wartime work.
Four months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry in the war, Ripley had “accepted a position on the education staff of the Sorel, Quebec, plant of the Chrysler Corp., which is engaged in making a new-type of 25-pounder cannon for Great Britain.”
The member of Wittenberg College’s Class of 1941 was “one of the 30 successful applicants among 5,000 college-educated young men who applied,” the story said, “the only one selected from Ohio.”
Ripley began selling Peerless and Durant cars in 1929 at a lot near St. John’s Lutheran Church, then sold Auburns and DeVauxs. He moved to Dodges and Plymouths in 1933 and opened a station to service them two years later. That led to connections that helped him land his wartime job with Chrysler.
Ripley and son Eugene opened a Buick dealership in 1954 in high style, announcing there would be “orchids for the ladies, contests for all and more than 100 new 1954 Buicks on display.”
His ill-fated Edsel dealership came three years later.
Ripley’s association with Buick ended in 1967, when he said he was interested in spending more time raising beef cattle and doing home construction.
He had built more than 40 homes and was farming 1,700 acres and feeding 1,500 cattle at the time of his retirement.
Ripley saw huge changes in the car business in more than 40 years.
In the early days, customers had to pay 40 percent down to buy a car, own a home and pay off the balance in 12 months, he told the Daily News.
Although not as heavy as the automobiles of the old days — “you could take a hammer and hit a Dodge and not put a dent in it” — Ripley said newer cars were of much better mechanical quality.
The car business “is a good business for a young fellow to get into and work,” Ripley said. “He has to work hard, be honest and tell the truth.” Originally from Gallipolis, Ripley died in 1977 at age 76.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.
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