Sam Swope

Bought a tiny dealership in 1952 and built the business into the nation's 69th largest dealership group, Swope showered millions of dollars on local charities. He had a soft spot for disabled children, animals and the elderly, those he felt were the most vulnerable. Swope was raised in Rittman, Ohio, a small town southwest of Akron, and later on moved to Cincinnati. He got a driver's license at 12, which was permitted then, and ran a business in high school washing and polishing cars. After a hitch in the Navy, Swope studied marketing at Ohio State University, then got a job at Columbus Coated Fabrics in Ohio. A friend, Al Graf, and Swope found a Dodge-Plymouth dealership for sale in 1951 in Elizabethtown, Ky. Graf left the business two years later to return to auto part sales, and the two remained close friends. In 1955, after a few tough years paying the bills, business improved. Dodge and Plymouth released strong models, and that year the dealership sold 400 vehicles, compared with 41 in 1951. Swope opened a second location in Elizabethtown. By 1957, Swope branched into Louisville, opening a Plymouth dealership on Dixie Highway. In 1961, he bought a defunct Pontiac dealership at Broadway and Hancock and moved it to Breckenridge Lane. He also moved his family to Louisville, and brother Bill, who had owned a dealership in Winchester, moved to Elizabethtown to manage the growing Swope businesses there. Sam Swope gave millions to Masonic groups, the Kentucky Humane Society and the Boy Scouts, but his decades-long involvement with Kosair Charities led to untold millions given to the charity for disabled children.