For the third time in 45 years, a Colorado car dealer has followed his/her father in earning the annual Time Dealer of the Year award for the state.
Bob Ghent, whose Chevrolet/Cadillac dealership in Greeley has recently completed a major renovation, will be one of 57 dealers nationally to receive the Time honor for 2014. He’ll be honored at the 97th annual National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Exposition Jan. 25, 2014, in New Orleans.
His father, Dwight Ghent, was Time Dealer for Colorado in 1980.
Other same-family winners have been Ralph Schomp in 1976 and daughter, Lisa, in 2007; and Harry Dowson in 1988 and son, Dean, in 2001. Lisa Schomp and Dean Dowson are cousins; their fathers were brothers-in-law.
The Ghent family’s involvement in the car business dates back to the late 1930s, when Bob’s grandfather, Frank, opened a used-car lot in Fort Collins. The Ford dealership there was acquired in 1942.
Ghent began washing cars at his father’s Ford dealership in Fort Collins while a student at Rocky Mountain High School in 1976. After earning a B.S. in economics from the University of Colorado in 1983, he handled sales, then managed leasing, finance and insurance, and sales at the family business.
Bob and Dwight Ghent purchased the Chevrolet dealership in Greeley in 1989 and added the Cadillac franchise in 2000.
Bob Ghent is a member of the Greeley Rotary Club and served as the business community division captain for the Northern Colorado Medical Center Foundation’s Monfort Children’s Clinic, which provides medical care to low-income families. He was chairman in 2010 of the American Cancer Society’s Cattle Barons Ball, which raised $300,000 for cancer research and patient care.
He has held leadership positions for the Greeley Chamber of Commerce and was automobile division chairman for the United Way of Weld County.
Ghent, 54, was nominated for the Time award by Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. Ghent and his wife, Ann, are parents of two children.
Russ Lyon of Boulder was Colorado’s first Time award nominee in 1970. Last year’s Colorado winner was Jay Cimino.
Bud Wells can be reached via e-mail at bwells@denverpost.com.
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