“Dad had the biggest heart of anyone I ever knew,” Craig Voss told Dayton Daily News. “It was interesting though, because he was very quiet about it. What he would do for for his employees, for his friends, for countless charitable organizations ... I can’t begin to tell you how much he did, but he did it very privately and very quietly.”
His father didn’t desire recognition, he said.
“That wasn’t why he was he was doing what he did,” Craig Voss said.
John Voss had a way of looking at things in the business world in a way in which other people just couldn’t, he said.
“He was very driven, but he also had a way of seeing opportunities where nobody else saw them,” Craig Voss said. “He just had this set of morals and ethics that not only guided him but really, he found people that shared those values and he placed them all throughout the organization and then he just let them operate within the business as if it were their own.”
John Voss was born on Nov. 3, 1942, near Chicago. He launched his automotive career in Evanston, Illinois, and on 1972, he and his father purchased land in Centerville and opened Voss Chevrolet.
After the death of his father, Voss spent the next several decades building Voss Auto Network into the largest auto group in the Dayton/Miami Valley area, one that has approximately 500 employees across its seven locations, Craig Voss said.
That included Joe Morgan Honda built in 2010 in Monroe by Voss and the late Cincinnati Reds second baseman Joe Morgan, a good friend and a Baseball Hall of Fame inductee. He also established the Voss Collision Centre, which he grew into one of the largest dealer-owner collision repair facilities in the United States.
Voss was recognized as a leader and innovator in the automotive industry, company officials said.
Craig Voss said his father’s death came unexpectedly after a brief hospitalization at Kettering Health Miamisburg.
“The nurses, the doctors and the staff ... I can’t say enough about them and the love and caring that they provided to us over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
John Voss is survived by his wife Gail, sons Brad (Lisa) Voss and Craig (Jessica) Voss and three grandchildren. Details for services will be announced at a later date.
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