Joe Luby

In 1920, the Luby family entered the car business in Denver, when Sam Luby, one of five brothers, purchased a Ford dealership.

Three years later, Sam and brother Louis took on the Hudson-Essex franchise. A third brother, Henry, joined them in 1930, when the family dropped Ford, Hudson and
Essex and became Chevrolet dealers.

As a boy, Joe Luby started working for his brothers doing odd jobs and working in the parts and sales departments. The business was prospering in 1956, when Joe, affectionately known as ‘Papa Joe,’ bought out his brothers. Two advertising campaigns, ‘I Love Luby’ and ‘Papa Joe Luby,’ kept things booming for the dealership into the 1970s.

The dealership left downtown Denver in 1972, and moved into a new dealership structure on South Wadsworth Boulevard in Lakewood. After longtime General Manager Joe Tittman resigned in 1974, he searched for a successor, and for three years, used several men in the key position. Then in 1977, Richard Fleischman, Joe’s son-in-law, joined the company as vice president and general counsel.

Joe was Colorado’s nominee for the 1987 TIME Quality of the Year award.

One of Colorado’s four oldest dealerships, Luby Chevrolet was sold in 1998 to Houston- based Group 1 Automotive, Inc.