Allen E. Samuels, a titan in the car business whose TV commercials featured his strolls across recognizable Waco venues, sports coat draped over his shoulder, died Friday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 86.
“Waco has a lot to offer, and so do we at Allen Samuels. Come by. Let’s be friends,” Samuels said in his TV spots, flashing a dazzling smile.
Launching his career in the car business in 1963, Samuels would evolve to own car dealerships from the Gulf Coast to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas before expanding outside the state.
But Waco was always his happy place, acquaintances and colleagues said. He and wife Donna were honored this year for their contributions to the Heart of Texas Junior Livestock Show, specifically spending more than $1 million over the years buying cattle and critters raised by area students.
But Waco was always his happy place, acquaintances and colleagues said. He and wife Donna were honored this year for their contributions to the Heart of Texas Junior Livestock Show, specifically spending more than $1 million over the years buying cattle and critters raised by area students.
An annual golf tournament promoted by the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce bears his name. An avid tennis player, Samuels was the driving force behind the Allen Samuels Waco Regional Tennis and Fitness Center. He opened Allen Samuels House of Travel and chose Waco to serve as headquarters for his expanding Allen Samuels Auto Group.
“Allen Samuels was the most interesting and inspiring client that I ever met,” said John Fletcher, a public relations specialist in Waco for years who relocated his agency, Fletcher Consulting, to Fort Worth. “I didn’t just love what he did. I loved him as a human being. Only in recent days did I realize that Allen became my client just a week after my own father passed away.
“In many ways, Allen was a second father to me, as well as a friend and mentor.”
Fletcher said Samuels often would rescue someone from financial collapse but would never mention the gesture to Fletcher and forbade publicity.
Ted Teague, general manager at Allen Samuels Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Fiat, said Samuels was unique in his determination to do things his way.
“His game plan never changed, from the very first day I met him. He said, ‘This is what I want to do, and this is how we’re going to do it.’ He never deviated, never changed directions, not once since he brought me from one of the larger dealerships in Hempstead to run this place,” Teague said. “I started here on Sept. 1, 2009, and his golden rule was always never cheat, never steal and never lie, and you always take care of your customer.”
Bart Cooper called Samuels boss for almost 30 years, shepherding the Allen Samuels Chevrolet and Mercedes-Benz dealership on Valley Mills Drive.
“He was hard, but he was fair and generous,” said Cooper, 77, who now dabbles in real estate locally. “I got the opportunity to go places and do things I never dreamed of. Every quarter he took all his dealership managers and their wives to a conference, and these weren’t your ordinary meetings. We would go to Hawaii, the Bahamas, California or Florida. We’d finish our business and then have a couple of days to play and enjoy ourselves.”
Cooper, originally from Pocatello, Idaho, said he had a good position at a dealership in Abilene but agreed to meet Samuels in Fort Worth about a job offer. He said he arrived with his wife, Candy, and two children in tow, parked and told his family he would only be staying a few minutes.
“We talked for 2 doggone hours,” Cooper said. “I told my wife what he offered: no salary, straight commission, no moving expenses. I would be his parts manager making a lot less than I was making in Abilene.”
Reading her husband, Candy Cooper said, “You took the job, didn’t you?”
Cooper did, and never regretted it. He told his wife he saw something in Samuels, knew he was going somewhere, “and I wanted to go along.”
Longtime Buick dealer and community leader Malcolm Duncan Sr., now 91, said he considered Samuels a friend and top-notch businessman.
McLennan County Judge Scott Felton, previously an executive with Wells Fargo Bank, called Samuels “one of the most talented business people I’ve known.”
Clayton Hall, long affiliated with the Junior Livestock program, said Allen Samuels and his wife, Donna, were regulars at auctions.
“Allen Samuels Group still holds the record, paying $40,000 for a grand champion steer,” Hall said. “I remember attending a roast for Allen a few years ago, and I was one of the roasters. I remember asking him, ‘How could you pay $40 a pound for a thousand-pound steer?’ He laughed and said he wasn’t making a business deal, he was trying to make a difference in somebody’s life. His legacy will live on.”
Samuels moved to Rockport about 15 years ago but maintained Waco businesses including Allen Samuels Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Fiat, Allen Samuels House of Travel, Allen Samuels Realty and Allen Samuels Sports, which operates the city-owned Waco Regional Tennis and Fitness Center. Over the years, he has owned and operated 21 dealerships, mostly in Texas.
“It was my honor to pay special tribute to my friends, Allen and Donna Samuels, at this year’s McLennan County Junior Livestock Show auction,” Hall said in a press release and obituary from the family. “Allen Samuels has inspired other businesses to participate and he has also helped existing participants raise the level of money they pay for these animals.”
Samuels got his start in the car business in 1963 and in nine years worked his way up to being general sales manager at Bill McKay Chevrolet in Fort Worth. He left to become a consultant to dealerships, and in 1983, he bought and turned around a struggling Dodge dealership in North Richland Hills.
He moved to Waco upon buying the Waco Chevrolet dealership from Bobby Steakley in 1990. After selling the dealership to employees in the early 2000s, he continued operating car dealerships around Texas and ultimately bought the Waco Dodge dealership in 2009 and built a new facility for it on Loop 340 two years later.
— WACOTRIB
— WACOTRIB
