Geisler named state retailer of the year

| Sunday, March 04, 2007

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PIERRE — Dave Geisler, owner of Pioneer Auto Show in Murdo, was honored at the South Dakota Retailers Association as the 2007 South Dakota Retailer of the Year.

“We received a large stack of letters nominating Dave Geisler for the retailer of the year award,” outgoing SDRA board president Terry Wilts said. “The people who nominated him, including employees, customers and business colleagues, made it clear that he is highly regarded by his employees as well as the customers who come through the door at his business.”

Wilts also noted that Geisler receives praise from others in the hospitality industry for his innovation, his dedication to great service and his tireless commitment to working on behalf of the entire visitor industry in South Dakota.

Geisler was a child when his father started the business as a small-scale gas station and John Deere and Chevrolet dealership. When he was only 9 years old, Dave set up a bicycle sales and repair business in his father’s car dealership. Soon after, when left alone to tend phones one day, he sold his first vehicle.

After college, Geisler returned home to assume part of the ownership and the management of the family’s auto sales business. At age 26, he was the youngest Ford dealer in the Twin Cities district. Within a few years, he was the sole owner of the business, and he built it into a major operation, taking it from a handful of sales every year to several hundred sales a year.

In 1979, he also assumed management of the auto museum. It has become one of South Dakota’s top visitor attractions, with dozens of  buildings, including the auto museum, a gift shop, a diner and motel.

Geisler has been active in every aspect of community life in the Murdo area, including community, church, civic and business organizations. He has been inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, and was the recipient of the prestigious Ben Black Elk award for his promotion of tourism in South Dakota.

The retailer of the year award has been presented annually since 1982 by the South Dakota Retailers Association, a 3,800-member statewide business organization.

-- Journal staff