CTDA Establishes Hall of Fame

The California Tire Dealers Association hosted its ninth annual CTDA/1-800EveryRim New Year Luncheon earlier this month, and announced the establishment of the California Tire Dealers Association Hall of Fame.

In addition to the Hall of Fame announcement, representatives from SEMA and The Tire Industry Association (TIA) also made appearances.

Two of the inductees were former directors of CTDA-N (North) and CTDA-S (South), with the combined associations becoming the California Tire Dealers Association (CTDA) in 2010.

The Hall of Fame inductees were announced by CTDA Executive Director Marc Connerly, and CTDA board member Chris Barry of the Independent Tire Dealer Group (ITDG) served as the luncheon’s emcee.

The first inductees into the CTDA Hall of Fame are:

• The late Eddie Cohn was a CTDA-S director and had previously operated Cohn Tire Sales in Los Angeles.
• Jay Goldberg has been a board member of the CTDA since the 1960’s. He operated Anderson Tire, Semperit Pacific, and later became a principal at Globe Tire. Goldberg was also heavily involved with the National Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association (NTDRA).
• The late Tom Hanlon, a past CTDA-N president, also ran Hanlon’s Tire Service in San Bruno, CA.
• The late Ed King, who helped establish CTDA-N’s insurance services, was a past executive director of CTDA and prior to that was a CTDA-N board member.
• Don Zavattero, former secretary, treasurer, and board member of the CTDA-N and CTDA, is the founder of Tech Supply in Hayward California.

“I know or had known each of the Hall of Fame inductees for quite a long time, and with Jay and Eddie, they were mentors to me,” said luncheon host and CTDA President Billy Eordekian of 1-800EveryRim OEM Wheels.

In addition to the Hall of Fame announcement, a few guest speakers touched on topics important to the industry.

SEMA Wheel & Tire Council (WTC) select committee member and former SEMA board member Steve Swanson of The Carlstar Group engaged attendees regarding the benefits of WTC membership, the organization said, while retired TIA CEO Roy Littlefield, and now a part time lobbyist for the association, reviewed legislative issues including the infrastructure bill and funding.

TIA President Mason Hess, of Purcell Tire, stressed the continuing impact of the labor shortage and talked about TIA’s role in employee training and the importance of manager engagement with new hires, the organization said.