Longtime car dealer Pete Findlay dies

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2005 | 8:38 a.m.

Born: June 19, 1919, in Pioche.

Education: Graduated from Lincoln County High School in Panaca in 1937.

Military: Army, World War II.

Services: 10 a.m. Saturday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave.

Survivors: Two sons, Ed Findlay and Cliff Findlay, both of Las Vegas; a daughter, Karen Hohl of Carson City; a sister, Enid Crownover of Las Vegas; a brother, Jack Findlay of Southern California; nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Donations: In Pete Findlay's memory to Nathan Adelson Hospice.

When Pete Findlay opened Pete's Used Cars on Boulder Highway in 1957, he knew he could depend on at least one factor to help sustain his fledgling business -- growth.

"Las Vegas always has been a place where the opportunity for growth has been excellent," Findlay told the Sun in 1990 for a strory on his business interests, which included Findlay Olds, the automobile franchise he operated for nearly 40 years in Las Vegas. "I don't see that changing."

Clifford O. 'Pete' Findlay, a fourth generation Nevadan and an advocate for humanitarian causes who built from one small used car lot the Findlay Automotive Group that today includes 18 dealerships, died Sunday of cancer. He was 86.

"My father was a visionary, but moreover he was a man of gentleness and compassion and a man of great honesty and integrity," said Cliff Findlay, a partner in his father's string of dealerships in Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

"Although not everyone who goes to a dealership to buy a car would think of it as a fun experience, Dad always felt it should be. He used to say if someone was going to spend $20,000 to buy a car, he should have fun doing it."

Over the years, Findlay's company supported several charities, including the American Cancer Society. Pete Findlay was a past recipient of the Nevada Muscular Dystrophy Association's Humanitarian of the Year Award.

And earlier this year, Findlay Middle School at 333 W. Tropical Parkway in North Las Vegas was named in Pete Findlay's honor.

Throughout Findlay's life, his jobs dealt with vehicles or automotive care.

Shortly after graduating from high school, Findlay went to work for his uncle Owen Walker, driving a ore truck from the Comet mine west of Panaca to California. Prior to entering the Army in 1941, Findlay worked at a Texaco service station in Panaca.

After World War II, in which he flew P-38s on combat missions, Findlay married Mary Jo Kutcher on Dec. 11, 1945. She preceded him in death.

In the early 1950s, Findlay operated the Y Service Station in Panaca, where he started buying, repairing and selling used cars. In 1955, he was awarded a franchise in Lincoln County to sell DeSoto, Plymouth and Dodge trucks.

Six years later he obtained a franchise from General Motors and opened Findlay Olds at 3024 Fremont St.

Although Las Vegas was relatively small compared to other markets, Findlay Olds won back-to-back achievement awards in 1979 and 1980 that marked the dealership as one of the Top 100 Oldsmobile sellers in the nation.

Findlay retired in the early 1990s, and the Findlay Olds on Fremont closed in the late 1990s. Today, the company has dealerships for Cadillac, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Oldsmobile-Saab among others.

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.