Dennis P. Amrhein

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade staff writer

Dennis P. Amrhein, a Toledo-area auto dealer since the 1980s who won the esteem of associates, customers, and even competitors, died Friday at Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center. He was 73.

A Temperance resident, Mr. Amrhein was taken to St. Vincent after a crash Friday morning on northbound I-75 in Perrysburg Township, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported.

He was president and partner in Charlie's Toledo Inc., made up of Grogan's Towne Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Toledo and Charlie's Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram in Maumee. He bought what had been Grogan Chrysler Plymouth in 1990, and in 2008 became an owner of Charlie's.

"Denny was very highly respected by his peers in the automobile business," said Marianne Ballas of Ballas Buick GMC in Sylvania Township. "Everyone admired him for the kind of businesses he ran, which were high in integrity. He bought those businesses. No one gave them to him. He earned them. He worked all of those years - long hours, very hard work. He ran them like a champ, like a pro."

Mr. Amrhein hired Marc Ray to sell cars in 1993 and then promoted him through the ranks, making him a business partner in 2008.

"He was like a father figure to me," said Mr. Ray, vice president of Charlie's Toledo. And Mr. Amrhein understood and taught "that it was all about the people we have working for us. They're truly the things that make everything go.

"If you get the people and take care of the customers, the business will take care of itself," Mr. Ray said. "The legacy continues on. He taught me so much through the years."

Mr. Amrhein treated everyone with respect, "not only his customers, but his employees," said Teresa Costanzo, the president of Card Advertising who worked with him for more than 26 years. "I take that with me in my business as well. He loved people. Everybody was his friend."

He was hard driven, said his daughter, Valerie Valentine: "very strong headed and willing to succeed. He wanted to work his way up and become successful in life, and that's what he did.

"He made everybody he met part of his family. He was always happy. He believed in everybody," she said.

An early job was washing cars for the former Ted Papenhagen Oldsmobile in Toledo. Auto sales success followed and, in the mid-1980s, he bought Wauseon Ford. He received Ford's President's Award in 1988 and 1989. He received Chrysler Corp. distinctions later.

In the former "Dossier" feature of the Saturday Peach section, Mr. Amrhein, under the heading "accomplishment I most cherish," wrote, "Winning the Ford Motor Co.'s and Chrysler Corp.'s highest awards - Ford President's Award and Chrysler's Pacesetters Club."

He also was known for his interest in community. He donated equipment and jerseys to central Toledo sports programs. He was a supporter of Toledo Jeep Fest. He was a patron of the Mud Hens and Walleye and a promoter and benefactor of the University of Toledo.

"He loved Toledo, the city, everything about Toledo," said his son, Denny Amrhein II.

In 2011, he acquired naming rights so that the Bedford High School football field became Grogan's Towne Field at Bedford Community Stadium.

He was born March 17, 1949, in Toledo to Alice and Ralph Amrhein and was a graduate of Central Catholic High School, where he played baseball. He later played adult softball and liked to follow horse racing.

"Family wise, he was always there for us," said the younger Mr. Amrhein, who played basketball at St. John's Jesuit High School, Bowling Green State University, and Oakland University. "He was there at every sporting event he could get to."

That extended to his grandchildren's extracurricular pursuits in recent years.

He and the former Shirley Irvine married April 17, 1970. She died Sept. 17, 2022.

Surviving are his daughter, Valerie Valentine; son, Denny P. Amrhein II; brother, Greg Amrhein, and three grandchildren.

Friends may visit from 2-8 p.m. Wednesday and from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday at Ansberg-West Funeral Home. Memorial services will begin at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Gesu Church.

The family suggests tributes to the American Heart Association.