The Second Part of the Story

Kristen took the lead to tell a little bit about the Napleton family and their history in the automobile industry. I’m going to take you back to 1992 and my arrival at Napleton.

For those of you who are long-time customers and friends, you’ll remember that I was at the Faul Fleet Group (along with Sue Gathercoal, Jack Carder, Diane Wick to name just a few) during the ‘80’s and early ‘90’s. We had some problems with our floorplan source at Faul and suddenly I found that I needed to make an employment change. With the help of some friends at GM Fleet and Chrysler Fleet, I interviewed with a number of dealers in the Chicago area.

My first interview at Ed Napleton Oldsmobile (remember when Oldsmobile was a hot fleet car?) was with the General Manager John Brakulis. John and I hit it off immediately. John was very upbeat but said that I would need to meet with Ed Napleton.

A week later I was back, spreadsheets in hand, with a projection of what we could sell in Oldsmobile, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Honda. I carefully went through the forecast detailing sales, gross, expenses and personnel. Ed listened but asked few questions. After probably 30 minutes of me talking almost non-stop, Ed looked up and said, “Tell me about yourself”

“What do you want to know?”

“Are you married?”

“Yes.”

“Any kids?”

“Yes, 2 a boy 12 and a girl who just turned 11.”

“Where do you live?”

“Naperville.”

“I like Naperville, nice town.”

“Where did you go to school?”

“High School Quigley North; College Loyola.”

“Loyola! I graduated from Loyola.”

After a couple of more minutes of chatter about Loyola, we realized that we graduated a couple of years apart and use to hang out at the same bar (Mr. Jones). The next thing I knew I was in Ed’s 1962 Imperial convertible going to visit an office building he just purchased. He was talking and planning the remodeling that needed to be done for the new Napleton Fleet Group. I was hired!

I started on October 5, 1992 with Sue Gathercoal. Within a couple of weeks Jack Carder had joined us. By Thanksgiving, Diane Wick was back with us. Just before Christmas, June Levin and Laurie were back on the team. We moved into our brand new offices in January, 1993…and the rest is history.