ROBERT SWEENEY, 72 Auto dealer known nationally

THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
Time magazine named him a finalist for its 1997 Quality Dealer Award.
NORTH LIMA -- Robert H. Sweeney, a prominent local auto dealer who achieved regional and national recognition in his field, died Wednesday morning in the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
Mr. Sweeney, 72, who was also a charitable fund-raising leader and local philanthropist, resided on East Pine Lake Road.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday in Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church.
Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at Davis Funeral Home, where the Four Square Club will hold services at 7 p.m. Friends may also call from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in the church.
He was born in Youngstown, a son of Arthur and Carolyn Hopper Sweeney, attending Youngstown and Boardman schools and receiving a mechanical engineering degree from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland in 1951.
He joined Rockwell Standard Co. as an engineer at its Newton Falls plant, but left in 1953 to enter the automobile business, becoming president of New Castle Motors the next year.
He returned to Youngstown in 1958 as executive vice president and general manager of Buick Youngstown Co. and was elected president of the Youngstown Auto Merchants Association in 1959.
Other career moves
In 1968, he became president and general manager of Buick Youngstown, replacing Eugene D. Hopper, who had been company president for more than 40 years.
He remained company president until 1997, when he handed the business over to his sons, David and Doug.
He also was active in several other businesses, serving as president of Redfern Co. and vice president of State Chevrolet, Valley Pontiac and HOWCAS Inc. and as a director of Union National Bank.
He was elected to the National Council of Buick Dealers in 1973. He became president of the Automobile Dealers Association of Eastern Ohio in 1978.
In 1980, he became president of the National Buick Dealer Council, and the next year, he joined the General Motors President's Dealer Advisory Council. Time magazine named him as a finalist for its 1997 Quality Dealer Award.
He was elected Choffin Career Center advisory committee chairman in 1976 and served as 1979 Easter Seal drive chairman.
He was a member of the Poland Presbyterian Church, the Youngstown Club, the Youngstown Country Club, Junior Four Square Club, and Sigma Nu and Theta Tau fraternities. He was also a Shriner and a 32nd-degree Mason.
His most recent contribution to the community was the Robert and Marilyn Sweeney Welcome Center on the campus of Youngstown State University, where he addressed a crowd at a dedication ceremony last October.