Phillip S. Brondes, Sr.

1931 - 2022

By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Phillip S. Brondes, Sr., a longtime Toledo-area auto dealer whose zany ads, in which he appeared with his late brother, Don, attracted attention - and customers - died Jan. 11 at Kingston Care Center of Sylvania. He was 90.

He'd been in declining health, his son, Phil Brondes, Jr., said.

He retired in the 1980s from day-to-day involvement in Brondes Ford, said his son, president and owner of the business, which has locations in West Toledo and Maumee.

"He was always an owner and active in the behind-the-scenes decisions, whether we were going to build or expand," his son said. "He was still business savvy. He read automotive news regularly and was on top of what was going on in the business."

In the 1930s, his father, Donald, opened a Hudson and Studebaker dealership in Toledo. Mr. Brondes started his career, after service stateside in the Navy, as an automotive auctioneer in Florida, where he also ran an A&W Root Beer stand, his son said. He and his father had a Cadillac and Oldsmobile dealership in Iowa for a time.

His brother, Don, had become a Ford dealer in 1955, and he returned to Toledo a year later and joined the business.

"My uncle's expertise was the back end of the store - service and that sort of thing," Phil Brondes, Jr. said. "My dad started running the used car department. They shared new car duties.

"My dad loved marketing and advertising and said, 'We need to get the dealership on the map,' and that's when the crazy commercials started. He said, 'I'm going to stand out from the clutter of the day-to-day stuff.'"

To aid the effort, they hired ad executive Don Lea. TV viewers watched the brothers Brondes employ chain saws or take pies in the face or let cars roll over their heads. Full-page Blade ads showed the brothers seeming to tower over downtown Toledo's buildings, with the message, "Toledo's biggest Ford dealer - giant sized discounts," or the brothers flying through the air. "Look! It's a couple of ducks - crows - buzzards. No! It's super dealers Don and Phil Brondes," the ad read.

For several years, Brondes held live spectacles at the Secor Road dealership - a man in a snake pit in the parking lot; a swimsuit-clad woman, "entombed in 5000 lbs. of ice alive," according to a Blade ad.

"There'd be lines and lines of people wanting to see this person literally buried in ice," his son said.

"He loved all that. My dad was a humble guy. He wasn't trying to be a movie star. But it took hold, and he was always proud of it and what it did for the stores," his son said. "Everybody knew the name Brondes and sales increased and we became one of the largest dealerships in the Detroit region. It paid off."

For several years running, starting in 1965, Brondes Ford was the only northwest Ohio Ford dealer to receive the automaker's Distinguished Achievement Award. He found the greatest satisfaction, his son said, "in the people he got to meet. Our family has always been very people-oriented - taking good care of our employees, taking care of customers, and the fact that that it has been part of our family's legacy."

He was born Feb. 7, 1931, in Toledo to Helen and Donald Brondes. The family moved to Bradenton, Fla., and he played high school football there. They returned his senior year, and he was a graduate of Whitmer High School. He also attended Duke University.

A Perrysburg Township resident in recent years, he was a member of Belmont Country Club. He liked to golf and play tennis and enjoyed retirement days spent in Florida and the Bahamas.

He'd been a member of Westgate Chapel and CedarCreek Church and had led Bible studies.

"He really was a man of faith," his son said.

He and MaryAnn Dama married in 1954. She died in 2002. Their daughter, Elizabeth Ann, died in 1982. He and Joyce Fisher Zammit married in 2004. She died in 2020.

Surviving are his son; Phillip Brondes, Jr.; stepson, Steven Fisher; stepdaughters Julie Fisher and Tracy Sallah; two grandsons, and stepgrandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.

Memorial services are planned for this summer. They are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Aug. 11 at CedarCreek Church in Perrysburg Township. Arrangements are by Witzler-Shank-Walker Funeral Home, Perrysburg.

The family suggests tributes to CedarCreek Church, Perrysburg Township.