A Century of Cars

O’Rielly Chevrolet Celebrates 100 Years of Business Success

By Dave Perry

O’Rielly Chevrolet has been around so long, it needed two years to commemorate its 100th anniversary. 

“It’s been a coming together as a company, to rally around, and to thank everyone who got us to our 100 years,” said O’Rielly President Rob Draper.

Gratitude has been expressed to hundreds of current and past employees, numerous vendor partners, a supportive community, and tens of thousands of customers.

In its entertaining, celebratory advertising, Draper said, O’Rielly Chevrolet has been “acknowledging the thin company we have in our space,” other local companies that have been around 100 years, El Charro, Garcia’s Cleaners and Laundry, and the Tucson Museum of Art. They’re all deeply intertwined within the fabric of Southern Arizona.

The dealership was founded after Frank O’Rielly tried but couldn’t get a Studebaker franchise in Tucson. He opted for the Chevrolet brand and opened O’Rielly Chevrolet at 55 N. Sixth Ave. in March 1924.

Frank O’Rielly “never wanted to be rich,” his son, Buck said. “He wanted to have a little business of his own where he could sell a product he believed in and make a comfortable living. It turned out he was very fortunate starting a business in a town that had so much growth ahead of it.”

Across a century of massive change, O’Rielly Chevrolet is one of America’s oldest, largest Chevrolet dealerships, all the while owned by the O’Rielly family. 

In its early years, Frank’s wife Josephine was a steady force. Buck and his wife Bobbie O’Rielly continued the journey. Buck, now 94, “spent most of his life in the business,” said Draper, who is married to Buck and Bobbie’s daughter Amy. Buck’s twin sister Pat was a shareholder, and her widower Chuck Pettis remains one.

As a boy more than 80 years ago, Buck worked as a go-fer in the dealership’s parts department, physically running to nearby suppliers. “I couldn’t even drive a car,” Buck said.

But Buck discovered as a young man that he loved to fly aircraft, completing tours with the U.S. Air Force and serving in Korea. “That’s one thing in life I’ve really enjoyed thoroughly, and felt I was pretty good at,” he said.

Buck soon had to make a choice – piloting aircraft or piloting O’Rielly Chevrolet.

“My father wanted me to decide if I wanted to be in the car business,” Buck said. “Otherwise, he was going to sell it. He wanted to do other things in his life and not worry about running a business. He never pressured me other than to make a decision.”

Buck resigned his Air National Guard commission “and spent all my time worrying about the car dealership,” he said. “It was the right decision.”

Buck ran the dealership for 49 years.

“I’ve never been a car guy,” Buck said. “To me, cars were just commodities. They were something you bought and sold and made a business out of it.”

Buck’s motivation “was to run a business that was the best of its type in the area. Somebody has to be No. 1, and I thought, ‘That’s going to be O’Rielly Chevrolet.’”

In the early 1960s, “we could prove we had sold a third of all the cars and trucks registered in Pima County,” Buck said. “That was the challenge for me and what I enjoyed about the business.”

In addition to running a successful business, Buck O’Rielly has had a hand in “shaping the landscape of Southern Arizona,” Draper said. Buck helped found the Davis-Monthan 50, is one of the original Tucson Conquistadores, was influential in getting Central Arizona Project water to Southern Arizona, bolstered Junior Achievement, and is “the single-greatest champion” for St. Augustine Catholic High School.

“When there was an undertaking to try to improve things in Southern Arizona, he was there,” Draper said.

“I knew we certainly needed to have a vibrant economy,” Buck said. “I had the time, and I wanted to see the community prosper. I might have had a 5 handicap in golf if it hadn’t been for all this other stuff you get involved in. Pretty soon, the golf game goes to hell.”

For Buck, extending CAP water into the region “was a natural. You knew sooner or later we were going to grow to a point where we didn’t have adequate water supply.”

The DM50 was created “to help solve problems the military might have with the community,” Buck said. “It’s taken on a life of its own now.”

Draper, current chair of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, is “following Buck’s example,” he said. Draper is committed to “being a good citizen, and helping to make change for the better.”

Draper “has done a marvelous job learning the car business,” Buck said. “He’s kept the business going and made it even more successful than what it was. And the employees seem to be so much better off. They’re happy. He has great people skills.”

O’Rielly Chevrolet has 190 employees, and they stay. Dwayne Warren recently retired as parts manager after 54 years. Warren’s son and son-in-law work there today. “All three of those people met their wives here,” Draper said.

Chris Holcomb has been with the business for 32 years, rising through the ranks to become general sales manager. His career illustrates O’Rielly’s commitment to employee growth.

“What separates us from other businesses is the same as what keeps me here,” Holcomb said. “Everything starts at the top, and the O’Rielly family has instilled values in their business that do not get compromised. It’s simple, always deal honestly and ethically,” with customers and colleagues alike. Then “make sure to deliver top-rate customer service, which means genuinely caring when concerns arise.”

It’s also a “fun” work environment, Holcomb said. The O’Rielly Chevrolet team is “a great group of people, inside or outside of work.”

“That’s how it all fits together,” Draper said. Loyal employees become experts, and loyal customers notice. “It’s what drives the business. It’s what has kept us in business 100 years.”

At 100, O’Rielly Chevrolet’s business is “excellent,” Draper asserts. Its inventory is “recognizable again” post-pandemic, with a strong Chevrolet lineup. “We’re on a good roll.”

Tucson is “a far cry from the little town it was in the 1960s and ‘70s,” Buck said. “It’s amazing how the town has grown. It’s a hard place to beat when it comes to having a nice place to live.”

Buck paused to reflect on the 100th anniversary.

“I know my dad never thought of it, or I ever thought of it,” he said. “We took it a year at a time, to try to do a good job each year. Pretty soon, 40 years had gone by, then 60, then 100, and we’ve had a successful business all that time.”

Draper added, “We’ve had a lot of fun celebrating such a unique milestone. It’s been amazing. The party continues.”