[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 16, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2152-E2153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE LATE RICHARD D. GIDRON

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 16, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today in tribute to a pioneering 
entrepreneur, a natural-born salesman, a trailblazer in the African-
American and business communities, and a dear friend, the late Richard 
Daniel Gidron. Dick Gidron overcame the many obstacles to success that 
faced Black entrepreneurs of his generation to become a successful car 
dealer who opened doors of opportunity for the current generation of 
successful Black businessmen. A man of firsts, Mr. Gidron rose from car 
jockey at a Cadillac dealership in his native Chicago to become the 
company's first Black salesman, and later, the second African-American 
Cadillac dealer nationwide and the first in New York. In honor of that 
stellar legacy, I want to recognize his achievements on the floor of 
the House so that his contributions can be appreciated. I introduce for 
the information of my colleagues his New York Times obituary, ``Richard 
D. Gidron Is Dead at 68; Ran an Empire of Car Dealerships,'' published 
October 15, 2007, and written by Robert D. McFadden.
  Mr. Gidron was head of a dealership empire that spanned three 
companies--Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Ford--and four regions--Bronx, 
Yonkers, Mt. Kisco, and Mahopac--that became quite a successful 
enterprise. He boasted impressive numbers, eclipsing $45 million in 
annual sales by 1980 to become one of the Nation's top 10 Cadillac 
dealers.
  The one-time president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce and Chairman 
of the Bronx County Democratic Committee, Mr. Gidron maintained a slew 
of friends representing the fields of politics, sports, and 
entertainment. At a time when African Americans found themselves seldom 
represented in the upper echelons of the entrepreneurial world, Mr. 
Gidron successfully led a franchise that served as the very symbol of 
wealth, stardom, celebrity, and power. We should remember and praise 
him for the pathway he blazed for the successful Black entrepreneurs of 
today.

   Richard D. Gidron Is Dead at 68; Ran an Empire of Car Dealerships

       Richard D. Gidron, a politically savvy Bronx businessman 
     who became one of America's earliest and most successful 
     black owners of a Cadillac dealership before falling on hard 
     times and going to prison for a year for fraud and tax 
     evasion, died Thursday at a New York hospital. He was 68 and 
     lived in Scarsdale.
       Mr. Gidron died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill 
     Cornell Medical Center, said his son, Richard Jr., who 
     declined to disclose the cause of death.
       For three decades, Dick Gidron, as he was known to a 
     generation of car buyers as well as mayors, congressmen, star 
     athletes and other celebrities, presided over an empire of 
     Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Ford dealerships that began in the 
     Bronx and moved into Yonkers, Mt. Kisco and Mahopac.
       Starting as a teenage car jockey parking Caddies at a 
     dealership in Chicago in 1957, Mr. Gidron, a born salesman, 
     learned his trade when America's craze with Cadillacs 
     inspired visions of stardom and celebrity--of Elvis Presley 
     whizzing through Memphis in a gold Cadillac and of Sugar Ray 
     Robinson cruising the streets of Harlem in a flamingo pink 
     convertible.
       In 1972, when General Motors wanted a minority owner for 
     its Bronx Cadillac franchise, it selected Mr. Gidron, by then 
     one of its top salesmen, over competitors who included Sammy 
     Davis Jr. and Henry Aaron. He thus became New York's first 
     African-American Cadillac dealer and the second in the 
     nation.
       By 1980, with annual sales of $45 million, Mr. Gidron was 
     among the top 10 Cadillac

[[Page E2153]]

     dealers in the United States. He acquired three homes, a 36-
     foot yacht and a host of prominent friends and political 
     connections. He was president of the Bronx Chamber of 
     Commerce for more than 10 years in the 1980s and '90s, and 
     was chairman of the Bronx County Democratic Committee for 
     several years in the 1980s.
       On his showroom walls were photos of Mr. Gidron with 
     President Ronald Reagan, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, Mother Teresa 
     and Muhammad Ali. Super Bowl parties at his home drew a 
     pantheon of judges, politicians and celebrities. Friends 
     included George Steinbrenner, the principal owner of the 
     Yankees; Stanley M. Friedman, the former Bronx Democratic 
     leader; Mayor David N. Dinkins; State Senator Guy J. Velella; 
     Representatives Mario Biaggi and Charles B. Rangel; and Dave 
     Winfield, the Yankees slugger.
       But by the 1990s, as the nation's love affair with 
     Cadillacs waned, America's most prestigious car had become an 
     outsize relic, overtaken by fuel-efficient imports and other 
     luxury brands. As Mr. Gidron's sales plummeted, he fell 
     behind in his corporate taxes, General Motors terminated his 
     franchise, and revenue agents seized parts of his business.
       In 2002, Mr. Gidron was indicted on charges of evading more 
     than $1.5 million in state and federal taxes from the sale 
     and leasing of cars from 1995 to 2000. In 2003, he pleaded 
     guilty to two counts of grand larceny and one of offering a 
     false instrument for filing--admitting that he kept car 
     payments meant for lending institutions--and was ordered to 
     pay $1.6 million in restitution and sentenced to three years 
     of home confinement and five years of probation.
       In 2005, state tax agents shut down Gidron Cadillac-
     Oldsmobile in Yonkers, seizing assets for what they said was 
     his failure to pay more than $800,000 in sales taxes. Three 
     other Gidron dealerships were also closed. Mr. Gidron was 
     arrested after a monitor appointed to oversee his business 
     charged that he had again kept car payments intended for 
     lending institutions. He pleaded guilty to violating 
     probation and defrauding nine victims of up to $100,000, and 
     was sentenced to one to three years in prison. State 
     officials said his former dealerships still owed $12 million 
     in taxes.
       In 2006, Mr. Gidron emerged from a year in prison, said he 
     hoped to make a comeback and sued General Motors for $150 
     million, charging that the automaker had reneged on a deal to 
     sell him an auto repair center in Yonkers that he had 
     restored at a cost of millions after it was damaged in a fire 
     in 2000. The suit is pending.
       Richard Daniel Gidron was born in Chicago on Oct. 10, 1939, 
     and was raised by his mother and grandmother after his father 
     died when he was 7. At 19, he got a job in a Cadillac 
     dealership on Chicago's South Side. He went to night school 
     but learned salesmanship on the lot and in the showroom. By 
     26, he had become Cadillac's first black salesman, a natural 
     who did not come across as a super pitchman but moved cars 
     with drumbeat regularity.
       Besides his son, of Scarsdale, Mr. Gidron is survived by 
     his wife, Marjorie; a daughter, Bridgett Gidron of Scarsdale; 
     two sisters, Dorothy J. Holmes of Stone Mountain, Ga., and 
     Freddie M. Kessee of Aliso Viejo, Calif.; a brother, Thomas 
     Parker of Little Rock, Ark.; and two grandchildren.

                          ____________________