PORT ANGELES — Dan Wilder Sr. has been recognized by the Washington State Auto Dealers Association with its Robert P. Mallon Dealer of the Year award for 2009.
Wilder is the patriarch of Wilder Auto Center and Wilder Toyota-Scion, the large dealership complex on U.S. Highway 101 at Deer Park Road in eastern Port Angeles.
Selected by a committee of his peers in the Washington State Auto Dealers Association, the award recognizes Wilder’s contributions to the auto industry, quality dealership operations and outstanding community service, the association said in a statement.
He received the award at the group’s convention earlier this month.
Wilder began his career in the automobile industry in 1966 as parts delivery person for a Volkswagen dealer in California.
He moved to Port Angeles in 1977 to buy a dealership of his own, and at age 27 became the second youngest Volkswagen dealer in the United States.
100 employees
Since then, his two dealerships, Wilder Auto Center and Wilder Toyota-Scion, have grown to a staff of about 100 employees.
It’s a family business involving his wife of 44 years, Sally, their son, Dan Jr., as general manager and their daughter, Sally Rose, as employee and customer relations manager.
Three grand children also help out, whether its washing cars on the lot or answering phones.
Wilder Sr. has been involved in civic affairs for decades.
He has served on the Olympic Medical Center Foundation Board for 14 years and has provided first prize — a new Toyota pickup truck — for the foundation’s fundraiser, the Great Olympic Duck Derby, since 1993. (See photo, Page D8)
Church elder
He has been an Independent Bible Church elder for 28 years, and actively supports numerous organizations including the Olympic Kidney Center Board, the Port Angeles Education Foundation, Young Life and United Way.
Wilder Sr. was appointed by then-Gov. Mike Lowry to the Peninsula College Board of Trustees in 1995, and he was reappointed by then-Gov. Gary Locke.
In recognizing Wilder wil the state Dealer of the Year award, the dealers’ association noted that part of the Wilder dealership’s benefit package allows employees to send their children to Peninsula College for two years with paid tuition.
“In recognition of Dan’s receipt of the association’s most prestigious award and to honor his belief in the importance of higher education and community support, [the Washington State Auto Dealers Association] was pleased to make a contribution in his name to Peninsula College,” said association Executive Vice President Vicki Giles Fabré.
Wilder has been active in the state dealers’ association, too.
2012 president
A Washington State Auto Dealers Association member for 30 years, and a member of is board of directors for eight, he was recently elected to the executive committee.
That puts him on track to be state president in 2012.
Son Dan Jr. described his father as a loyal, generous, hard-working godly man.
“Those who know him know that his enthusiasm about life even makes him a little hard to keep up with,” the younger Wilder said.
The state Dealer of the Year award is named for former Tacoma dealer Robert P. Mallon, who was Washington State Auto Dealers Association president in 1966-67, is a past president of the National Automobile Dealers Association, served 30 years as Washington state’s director to the national association, and is founder and chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Charitable Foundation.
The Washington State Auto Dealers Association’s 312 dealer members serve 75 communities in the state and are responsible for annual sales volume in excess of $13 billion.
They total 15 percent of the state’s sales tax revenues, according to the association.
