The Dealer Founders

1928 – the present · the houses stand whole in the Dealerships section

The division, stated: The auto trade's founders are the Dealerships section's own record, canvass by canvass; this entry carries the class as a class — the succession shape the trade kept repeating — and points to that file for each house whole. The shape is the family corporation: a founder, a wife keeping the books, sons rising through the offices, and a corner held for decades.

The successions, in one line each: Gates: founded by L. O. Gates at Plymouth in 1928 as a grocer's side business; Mishawaka's Chevrolet store by 1949 with L. O. Gates president; a four-Gates letterhead by 1956 — L. O. president, Rose I. secretary-treasurer, Van E. vice-president, Ned B. general manager; Van E. Gates president by the 1963 McKinley Avenue store; Larry Gates president of a four-store group in 2004, on the Tribune's account; the group's own current account keeps the house family-owned in the third and fourth generations, and no later named president was reached. Jordan: founded 1949 by Jordan H. Kapson at 609 East Jefferson Boulevard, on ground first listed that year as Ben Medow's Mishawaka store, with Medow retained as the new house's vice-president and Kapson's wife as secretary-treasurer; the city's Ford point by 1963; Craig Kapson president in the founder's last years; sold by the family to RFJ Auto Partners in 2016, and RFJ acquired by Sonic Automotive on 6 December 2021 — the founder's name still on the stores. Gurley Leep: founded by Mike Leep Sr. and Van Gurley with a Buick franchise in downtown South Bend — in 1977 on the house's own account and the Tribune's arithmetic, in 1973 on Marian University's 2025 account and the aggregators, the conflict carried whole in the Dealerships and Wealth sections and flagged for assembly with neither date preferred here; Mishawaka's from 1984; led today by the founder's sons Mike Leep Jr. and James Leep, in the public roles the record names. The earlier points: the Ford trade's first Mishawaka form was a branch of William R. Hinkle's South Bend distributorship in 1921; the O'Neil family's own Ford store stood by 1956 under Thomas J. O'Neil Jr., president and general manager, and the point passed to the Kapson house between the 1956 and 1963 canvasses by a mechanism the record does not document — the gap is the Dealerships section's own, repeated here because a succession is this section's subject.

Sources:

1. Dealerships — "Gates Chevrolet" (the 1928 Plymouth founding; the 1949, 1956, and 1963 canvasses with their officer lists; the 2004 group under President Larry Gates); "The Jordan house" (the 1949 founding and the Medow succession; the 1956 and 1963 canvasses; Craig Kapson president; the 2016 RFJ sale and the Sonic acquisition of 6 December 2021); "Gurley Leep" (the 1977 founding on the house's account and the Tribune; the 1984 Mishawaka partnership; the sons' leadership; the April 2026 campus groundbreaking); "The Ford point" (Hinkle's 1921 branch; O'Neil Motor Co. under Thomas J. O'Neil Jr. in 1956; the undocumented transfer).
2. Great Fortunes — "The Leep Family" (the founding carried 1973 vs 1977, printed both, neither preferred; the family's published giving at the leg's rule) and "Jordan H. Kapson" (the founder's course and gift, cross-referenced).
3. Gates Automotive Group, the house's own about account, read November 2026 — L. O. Gates's 1928 start; the house still family-owned, "a third and fourth generation business."