By Bud Wells
Lloyd Chavez, 88, who rose from humble beginnings to head the Burt automotive empire in Denver which became the largest Hispanic-owned business in the country, died on Thursday, May 26.
Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, June 3, at Jubilee Fellowship Church in Lone Tree. Private burial will be at the Littleton Cemetery.
I learned of Chavez’ death through a phone call from A.J. Guanella, a more-than-50-year associate of Chavez at Burt.
Chavez and his wife, Doris, were married 65 years before she passed away three years ago.
Lloyd George Chavez, born April 8, 1928, in Denver, gained footing as a determined individual while playing quarterback for the football team at Littleton High School, from which he graduated at age 16 in 1945.
Chavez attended Colorado A&M College briefly before joining the U.S. Navy. On his return from service, he attained his college degree from the University of Denver in 1950, then hoped to land a job with General Motors. Chavez’ father, Sam, was a gardener for Nate Burt, and it was that connection that led the young Chavez into a used-car sales position with Burt Chevrolet while studying at DU.
“I had good training through the years from one of the best in the business,” Chavez said of Nate Burt. “Nate was a natural in the auto business; he had a knack for recruiting and developing workers who stayed with him. The result was, in later years I was blessed with good employees and managers.”
The Burt Chevrolet operation in 1964 moved into a new building and parking area for nearly 1,000 automobiles at 5200 S. Broadway. A Toyota franchise was added in 1965 and Subaru in 1970.
Chavez began buying into Burt’s business in 1966, when he purchased a quarter-interest in the newly added Toyota operation. He continued to expand his interest, become majority owner in 1982 and bought the last of the Burt family’s shares from Allen Burt (son of Nate) in 1987, making Chavez sole owner.
Chavez’ Chevrolet store was the largest dealership for that brand in the Rocky Mountain region for many years, the Subaru business was the largest in the world for that brand for 19 years and Burt Toyota the largest retail Toyota dealership in the Denver area.
Tim Jackson, head of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, several years ago had this to say of Chavez:
“Lloyd Chavez’s Burt Automotive has been an institution in the car industry in Denver for more than half a century. Lloyd demonstrated, daily, that he was a genius marketer and a true car guy as he purchased, managed and grew Burt into one of Colorado’s largest auto dealer groups. He is highly respected among his peers and the community. Burt Chevrolet will be remembered as a store that ushered in modern sales practices, multimedia and mass-marketing as well as growth in reliability and reputation as staples of neighborhood car dealer operations.”
At one point in his career, Chavez correctly anticipated a downturn in the economy and bolstered Burt’s fleet operations and became a leading supplier to the large daily rental car companies, such as National, Hertz, Avis, Alamo, Dollar, etc., as well as to the State of Colorado and U S West/Qwest.
Chavez received the Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award for Colorado at the National Automobile Dealers Association in Las Vegas in 1996.
Chavez was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon at the Denver Auto Show 10 years ago. I photographed Chavez and Doris at that luncheon.
Several Burt stores were sold to Groove Automotive and Rod Buscher beginning in the summer of 2009, then Burt Chevrolet was sold to John Elway.
Chavez is survived by son LG Chavez, daughters Pamela Held and Denise Chavez-Wilson and spouses, 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.