Pub. 3 2021-2022 Issue 3

14 T erry Gilmore is a first-generation dealer who has been nominated as California’s nominee for the 2022 TIME Dealer of the Year in partnership with Ally. CNCDA recently talked with Terry about his life, work and nomination. Please tell us about growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. I was born in 1947, a couple of years after World War II ended, and I was the oldest of three brothers. St. Louis was one of the largest cities in the U.S. at that time, but I do not think it is now. McDonnell Douglas and Anheuser Busch were the biggest employers. My biological father was a World War II veteran. He died of a heart attack when he was 41. I was 12. My mother remarried, and we moved to the suburbs. My stepdad was a World War II veteran also. We lived a simple life. My mom’s mom lived with us, both of my parents worked, and our activities were on the weekend. It was a fun time to grow up. What impact did your service in the U.S. Army have on your life? I was 19 when I was drafted, 20 when I went to Vietnam, and 21 when I came home. I didn’t realize it at the time, but at some point in my career, I realized the Army was by far the greatest team I had ever been a part of. My military experience helped me realize the importance of every employee on the team. We often do not recognize the importance of all the players to the team, but if everyone does their job right, the team succeeds. That is what the Army taught me during those quick two years. Going to Vietnam was very tough. Sometimes I think about why things happen or do not happen. For me, the hardest part was at the mail call. Being 12,000 miles away from home and with a letter being the only way to communicate, it was disappointing when my name wasn’t called for mail. I learned to save letters so I could reread them when I didn’t have a new one. The little things make you the happiest, not the big things. You wanted to be a professional bowler at one point. Please tell us about that. Bowling was a big indoor sport during the winter in St. Louis, and my stepdad and my mom were both bowlers. We had a bowling center in our subdivision owned by the five greatest bowlers of all time. I was around bowling icons. I got a job picking up bottles, and they would pay me three free games an hour, which allowed me to bowl all day if I wanted. I thought bowling was what I wanted as a career. I worked at that bowling center until I went to Vietnam. Even though I was a good amateur bowler, I wasn’t good enough to compete professionally. Bowling taught me the importance of practice and that if you want to do something well, you must be 100% committed. Knowing this has helped me succeed. You moved from St. Louis, Missouri, to Scottsdale, Arizona, and began to sell automobiles. Why did you fall in love with Scottsdale? We had seasonal weather in St. Louis: snow, rain and 100% humidity. In 1975, I took a vacation to the Camelback Ranch, and I fell in love with Scottsdale’s weather. When I moved in 1977, my stepdad had just retired from Standard Oil, and we drove out to Scottsdale. There were less than 500,000 people then. Although bowling had been my life, I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford to live there through bowling. I searched the want ads and was TIME Dealer - Terry Gilmore