Frank Kirby, 57; a Top Car Dealer in County

CAMARILLO — A memorial service will be held Tuesday for 57-year-old Frank Kirby, one Ventura County’s most successful automotive dealers, who died Friday after suffering a heart attack at his Camarillo home, authorities said.

Kirby, his brother John and father, Frank Sr., came to the county in the early 1960s from Chicago, where his grandfather had a successful career in the automobile business, and established Kirby Oldsmobile in downtown Ventura.

“Frank was from a longtime automotive family,” said John Masterson, another longtime Ventura car dealer and friend of Frank Kirby’s since Kirby came to Ventura.

“He was one of the truly old-style, hands-on dealers,” Masterson said.

In the early 1970s, when a new concept in automobile dealerships--the freeway auto mall--hit Ventura, Kirby was the second dealer to make the move to the new auto mall, on Leland Avenue.

“People thought he was crazy for being out so far,” Masterson recalled. “He had a lot of foresight.”

The move paid off for Kirby, and today, in addition to Oldsmobile, the Kirby dealership sells the Jeep, Eagle and Suzuki nameplates.

What set Kirby apart from other car dealers, Masterson said, was his approach to business.

“Frank was a real involved automobile man,” he said. “His style was to be extremely active and very involved in the operation of his business.”

Kirby was a longtime sports fan. In 1995, he criticized the Ventura City Council--and threatened to move his dealership to Oxnard--over the council’s reluctance to approve a sports complex near the Ventura Auto Center.

“I’m thinking, here’s the city of Ventura. How many mistakes have they made? Do they need another one?” Kirby said at the time.

Kirby had a long history of heart problems and underwent two heart bypass operations--the first about 20 years ago, authorities said.

At 7:15 p.m. Friday, Kirby suffered a heart attack at his home and was taken to St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, where he was pronounced dead, said a coroner’s spokesman.

Kirby is survived by his wife, Barbara, and three children.

A memorial service will be held Tuesday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary, Camarillo. He will be buried during a private family ceremony.