George Sessler was never pushy when he sold cars and never sold a customer a car they didn’t need or couldn’t afford, his wife said.
Instead, he offered them a firm handshake, friendly words and a warm smile.
“I remember one incident when a young woman had to come in to sign for her first car; she was trembling,” said Mr. Sessler’s wife of nearly 60 years, Dolores. “He said, ‘I have daughters of my own. I’m not going to do anything that will hurt you.’
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For more than 40 years Mr. Sessler’s Ford dealership was a fixture in Libertyville, a place where buyers came back again and again. Even well into his 70s, he could still be found at the sprawling showroom on Milwaukee Avenue.
“It just made him feel good to be there,” his wife said. “The office, the maintenance area, the lot.”
Mr. Sessler, 81, died after a prolonged illness Sunday, May 27, in his Libertyville home, she said.
He was born in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, and his father owned car dealerships on the Northwest Side.
He attended Roosevelt High School and just a few days after graduating in 1943 joined the Navy. Mr. Sessler served in the South Pacific as a crew member aboard tank landing ships that transported troops between islands.
“He didn’t talk much about it, but he would sometimes mention it,” his wife said. “A lot of the men of that era tend not to want to talk about the war.”
When he returned, Mr. Sessler wanted to enroll in a college, so he and his cousin went looking for local institutions with open seats. Their search met with great difficulty, though, because thousands of other young veterans returning from abroad were doing the same thing.
Eventually he enrolled at Millikin University in Decatur. A year later, he married his wife, whom he met on a camping vacation during his teen years. He graduated in 1949.
From there he returned to Chicago, where he worked at a dealership near Cicero and Diversey Avenues.
In 1961 he and his family moved to Libertyville, where Mr. Sessler bought a bankrupt dealership downtown.
“Libertyville — he chose it,” his wife said. “There were several places he could have gone to, but it seemed like a great place to be.”
About a decade later, he moved the dealership to the south end of town, its current location. John Fischer, Sessler Ford’s vice president and general manager, said Mr. Sessler had “his own special way” with customers.
“He was a very kind and caring owner,” said Fischer, who worked with Mr. Sessler for 12 years. “He would never try and force someone into something that wouldn’t be good for them. He wasn’t your run-of-the-mill car dealer.”
Although he loved selling cars, Mr. Sessler had other passions. He was a charter member of the Libertyville Covenant Church and a member of Mainstreet Libertyville, a volunteer civic organization.
He enjoyed fishing and was an avid canoeist who took part in the Des Plaines River Canoe Marathon for many years. In addition to being an amateur pilot, who with a friend owned a small plane, Mr. Sessler became a devotee of early Lake County history.
“He loved reading about where [old Indian trails] might be,” his wife said. “He was interested in anything and everything.”
Mr. Sessler also is survived by three daughters, Christine Bragg, Carol Westerlund and Constance Bergeson; a son, Cashton; and five grandchildren.
A service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Libertyville Covenant Church, 250 S. St. Mary’s Rd., Libertyville.
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alwang@tribune.com
