Cleveland dealership founder Ed Conrad dies

CLEVELAND (Oct. 26, 2015) — Edward J. Conrad Jr., 84, founder of Conrad's Tire Service Inc., died Oct. 24.

A life-long Cleveland-area resident, he had worked in his family's former business, Conrad's Church Goods, with his parents, the late Edward J. Conrad Sr., and Marie M. (St. John) Conrad, and siblings before founding in 1969 the tire dealership that bears his name. Mr. Conrad began with his first Goodyear tire store in the Cleveland suburb of Parma and continued expanding the tire and automotive business to its current 36 locations.

In 2012 a Conrad's Tire executive told Tire Business the company, which operated 33 locations at that time, was looking to fill in its Northeast Ohio footprint with additional stores as opportunities arose, and had expanded into the Akron area. At the time retail comprised 81 percent of Conrad's operations with the remainder in wholesale. Auto service sales accounted for a little over half of the dealership's revenue with the remainder in tires and wheels.

The company's ubiquitous ads that play regularly in the Cleveland market are punctuated with a well-known ending: They feature a woman whispering the name “Conrad's.”

Mr. Conrad also expanded his business holdings with the acquisitions of Elyria Spring and Specialty Co. and S & H Industries. The family said Mr. Conrad was “ever grateful for the talent and devotion of his management teams in all his businesses.”

According to a published obituary, Mr. Conrad attended St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, where he was the featherweight boxing champ, graduating in 1949. He also attended John Carroll University in the Cleveland area before serving as a Master Sergeant in the 1st Armored Division at Ft. Hood, Texas, during the Korean Conflict before returning home to start his business career.

Mr. Conrad is survived by his wife Joan A. (Dever) Conrad, to whom he was married for 64 years; children, Edward J. Conrad, III (Linda), Mary Jo Morse (Mike), Sharon M. Conrad and Robert J. Conrad (Laurel); nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and brothers William A. (Marilyn) and Dennis J. (Deborah).

A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Raphael Catholic Church, 525 Dover Center Road, Bay Village, Ohio, on at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 29.