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Second Generation: Lee Gartner
Ernest Lee Gartner, who married Lewis Reed’s daughter, Mary Jane, joined Reed Brothers Dodge in 1949. Although he graduated from Strayer College with a degree in business, he learned a lot through hands-on experience at the dealership through working in the business department, service, and parts departments, body shop and sales. When Lewis Reed passed away on January 28, 1967, Lee Gartner took the helm as Dealer Principal/President, making Reed Brothers Dodge a second-generation dealer.
Reed Brothers continued to grow under his leadership. When the state widened the roads in 1970, he relocated the entire business to a new state-of-the-art showroom and Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep service complex on Route 355 at 15955 Frederick Road. In comparison to Lewis Reed, who kept the business afloat through World War I, The Great Depression, and World War II, Lee Gartner successfully navigated through numerous Chrysler setbacks during the 1970's and 80's, including the first Chrysler Bailout, the sale of Chrysler to Daimler, and the sale to the private equity firm Cerberus. He applied his more than thirty years of experience with Reed Brothers to meet the challenges of gasoline shortages, high interest rates, severe inflation, and the weakening consumer confidence which drove Chrysler into financial crisis.
Though he ceded control to his sons in 1993, Lee continued to be a fixture at the dealership and could be seen around just about every day watering flowers, reading his newspaper, walking through the shop, and greeting friends and customers in the showroom. The word "retirement" was not in his vocabulary. He remained Chairman of the Board until he passed away on June 13, 2009, just four days after the loss of the family's Dodge franchise.
Lee Gartner will always be remembered as a successful businessman whose persistent energy was always there for family first, but in equal measure for the public he served. He was smart, and also honest and dependable - characteristics that kept Reed Brothers Dodge at the pinnacle of auto dealerships throughout his career.
Third Generation: Richard and Barry Gartner
Lee Gartner’s two sons, Richard and Barry, started working at the dealership part-time when they were around fifteen years old. To learn the business, they started at the bottom of the company in Used Car Get-Ready and the Parts Department and worked their way up. After graduating from high school, both brothers studied dealership management at Northwood Institute, now known as Northwood University. Together, they took over management of the dealership in the Reed Brothers tradition: Richard oversaw the “front end” new and used car sales and Barry managed the “back end” Service, Parts, and Body Shop. It’s an old adage in the car business that "the front end gets the business, but the back end keeps the business."
In 1993, when Lee Gartner retired and became Chairman of the Board, Richard was designated as President/Dealer Principal and Barry served as Vice President/General Manager, making Reed Brothers Dodge a third-generation dealer.
All in the Family
In 1974, Lee Gartner’s eldest daughter, Jeanne, started working in the general office to learn the business, but soon pursued a different path. Jeanne had earned a Bachelor of Music Education from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in 1972, then after receiving an Artist Diploma from the Conservatoire National de Région de Bordeaux in 1974, and a Master of Music in Performance from The Catholic University of America in 1975, she pursued a career in The United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. She served for 30 years, retiring in the top enlisted grade of Chief Master Sergeant on July 1, 2006. She later rejoined the family business as Internet Director, and later served as Corporate Secretary and Director of Digital Marketing and Advertising.
In 1987, Lee Gartner’s youngest daughter, Bonnie (Gartner) Warfield, joined the business after majoring in English at Randolph-Macon Women’s College and working as the classified advertising manager at the Gaithersburg Gazette newspaper. She later served as the F&I Manager, Director of Advertising, and Corporate Secretary at Reed Brothers Dodge.
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