Darrell Roth Gordon, pioneer minority auto-dealership operator

Darrell Roth Gordon, 87, of Marlton, who operated one of the first automobile dealerships in the region owned by a minority-group member, died Tuesday, March 25, after a lengthy illness.

Mr. Gordon was born in Philadelphia to parents who had migrated to the United States from Guyana. He attended Central High School, where he graduated with honors. Mr. Gordon also attended the University of Pennsylvania, where there were only three other minorities in his graduating class, according to his daughter Laura.

He later obtained a master's degree from the Wharton School, she said.

Mr. Gordon, an accomplished violinist as a youth, attended Tindley Temple Methodist Church in Philadelphia, where he met and married his wife, Florence, a pianist who played in the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, Laura Gordon said. Florence Bishop Gordon died in 1974.

After college, Mr. Gordon served in the Army and the Air Force. He received an honorable discharge in 1946 at Fort Dix and was appointed a second lieutenant in 1951 at Mitchel Air Force Base in New York.

Mr. Gordon enjoyed fencing and tennis and playing chess. But his favorite thing was to work.

"He was a tireless worker who instilled discipline, education, and forthrightness in his children," Laura Gordon said. "My father was raised by a very strict father, so he had no choice but to be successful."

After her parents married, Laura Gordon said, they had four children. Her father put aside his dreams of becoming a violin virtuoso and got a job selling automobiles at dealerships in the region. He was successful, selling so many new cars annually that in the early 1970s, General Motors approached him about becoming its first minority auto dealer in the Philadelphia region. He subsequently owned and operated Gordon Buick on North Broad Street for many years. His entrepreneurship was featured in various publications, and in the 1980s, Black Enterprise magazine named his operation among the Top 100 minority-owned businesses, Laura Gordon said.

After closing Gordon Buick in the mid-1980s, he opened and operated two dealerships in Vineland, N.J. - Gordon Chrysler Plymouth Dodge and Gordon Buick Cadillac Oldsmobile - before his retirement in the early 1990s.

Besides his daughter, he is survived by daughter Darrylin and son Darrell R. III, four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by daughter Diane Proctor.

Friends may call from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Monday, March 31, at the Bradley Funeral Home, 601 Route 73, Marlton. A memorial service will follow at 11 a.m. Burial is private.

Memorial donations may be made to the United Negro College Fund at www.uncf.org.