Marvin M. Tamaroff is the founder of what’s known today as the Tamaroff Group. The company was established as Tamaroff Buick in 1969, when Marvin — a U.S. army veteran, mechanical engineer and former used-car dealer — opened his first store on 12 Mile and Telegraph Road in Southfield. He was the first dealer who dared to open a business on what was then a quiet stretch of farmland. (We don’t have to tell you how many followed in his footsteps.)

Over the next decades, Marvin became the largest Buick dealer in Michigan and one of the most successful in the country. Under his leadership, the company acquired multiple franchises and expanded into various ventures, from car leasing to the Michigan Auto Dealers Self-Insured Fund, which he created in 1980.

Marvin was widely considered a visionary in the car business, but his motto was simple: Take care of the customers, take care of the employees, and the rest will come.

Marvin stepped down from running day-to-day operations in his eighties but until his early nineties he was a frequent presence around the office, where employees — many of whom have worked at the company for decades — always greeted him with a hearty, “Hi, Mr. T!”

Now in the hands of the third generation, the Tamaroff Group continues to be guided by Marvin’s friendly disposition, his kind, generous spirit, and his dedication to always doing right by our employees and customers.