2nd Generation

Ernest Lee Gartner, who married Lewis Reed’s daughter, Mary Jane, joined Reed Brothers Dodge in 1949. Although he graduated from Strayer College with a degree in business, he learned a lot through hands-on experience at the dealership through working in the business department, service, and parts departments, body shop and sales. When Lewis Reed passed away on January 28, 1967, Lee Gartner took the helm as Dealer Principal/President, making Reed Brothers Dodge a second-generation dealer. 

Reed Brothers continued to grow under his leadership. When the state widened the roads in 1970, he relocated the entire business to a new state-of-the-art showroom and Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep service complex on Route 355 at 15955 Frederick Road. In comparison to Lewis Reed, who kept the business afloat through World War I, The Great Depression, and World War II, Lee Gartner successfully navigated through numerous Chrysler setbacks during the 1970’s and 80’s, including the first Chrysler Bailout, the sale of Chrysler to Daimler, and the sale to the private equity firm Cerberus. He applied his more than thirty years of experience with Reed Brothers to meet the challenges of gasoline shortages, high interest rates, severe inflation, and the weakening consumer confidence which drove Chrysler into financial crisis. 

Though he ceded control to his sons in 1993, Lee continued to be a fixture at the dealership and could be seen around just about every day watering flowers, reading his newspaper, walking through the shop, and greeting friends and customers in the showroom. The word “retirement” was not in his vocabulary. He remained Chairman of the Board until he passed away on June 13, 2009, just four days after the loss of the family’s Dodge franchise. 

Lee Gartner will always be remembered as a successful businessman whose persistent energy was always there for family first, but in equal measure for the public he served. He was smart, and also honest and dependable – characteristics that kept Reed Brothers Dodge at the pinnacle of auto dealerships throughout his career.