First African American Auto Dealer in the country to celebrate 50 years in business

Dayton, Ohio based Bob Ross Auto Group is the first African American automobile dealer in the country to celebrate 50 years in business.

DAYTON, OHIO, UNITED STATES, July 11, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Bob Ross Auto Group is the First African American automobile dealer in the country to celebrate 50 years in business.

The dealership is celebrating with an anniversary event on July 13. The event, which will include several hundred guests of Bob Ross Auto Group, will feature leaders from local government and representatives from General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, along with some special guests from the community.

In 1962 Bob Ross entered the automobile industry as a salesman for Shannon Buick in Dayton, Ohio. While at Shannon Buick he qualified for the Buick Sales Master Club for ten years.

Ross began pursuing his entrepreneurial dream when he was chosen to participate in the First General Motors Minority Dealer Academy, graduating in 1972. He received an Associate Degree from the University of Detroit. He was the first graduate of the Academy to be approved as an Automobile Dealer.

He purchased Vivian Buick, Opal and International Harvester Trucks in Richmond, Indiana in 1974, where as a young man he worked as a lot attendant. He became the first African American Automobile Dealer in the state of Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia along with being the first African-American International Harvester Dealer in the US. Bob Ross died in 1997.

His daughter Jenell Ross continues the family legacy of service and leadership. Jenell Ross leads the Bob Ross Auto Group, which include Mercedes-Benz, Buick and GMC dealerships, following in the footsteps of her parents the late Robert P. Ross, Sr. and Norma J. Ross.

Jenell Ross is the country’s only second-generation African American woman auto dealer owner. And she is the only African American woman in the country to own a Mercedes-Benz or Buick-GMC dealership.

Jenell became the first African American Chair of the American International Automobile Dealers Association in 2013.

Jenell has also served on several boards ranging from the local community to the international level. This includes serving on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cincinnati, the University of Dayton Board of Trustees, the Hub Group Board of Directors and the Cars Commerce Board of Directors.

She created the Norma J. Ross Memorial Foundation in honor of her mother who she lost to breast cancer.

Learn more at bobrossbuickgmc.com

Holly Michael
Ohlmann Group
+1 937-673-1054
holly.michael@ohlmanngroup.om