Business Historian Gary Hoover to Speak in Fayetteville Sunday

Gary Hoover, Executive Director of the American Business History Center and former resident of Fayette County, is the second speaker in the Fayetteville Community Center’s Speaker Series. He will present a talk on the History of the American Automobile Industry from the failures to the industry giants and the characters involved — the Elon Musks of that time. The presentation, free and open to the public, will be held at the Fayetteville Community Center on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m.

Readers of The Fayette County Record may remember the paper’s coverage of the fire that burned Gary’s home and business in downtown Flatonia in October 2022. That fire destroyed Gary’s library of over 70,000 volumes on American businesses. He is perhaps best known as the founder of Bookstop, the first chain of large book superstores. Bookstop had stores from coast to coast before selling the business to Barnes & Noble in 1989.

Gary and partners then founded the Reference Press and in 1990 published the first Hoover’s Handbook: Profiles of over 500 Major Corporations. The company morphed into Hoover’s Inc, a top provider of online business information, went public and was listed on NASDAQ in 1999.

It was purchased by Dunn & Bradstreet in 2003.

Gary served on the board of Whole Foods Market during their time of early growth and the company’s initial public offering. He has written three books and was the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas in Austin.

General Motors was the largest employer in Gary’s hometown in Indiana. At one time, the automobile industry was seen as a very high risk investment. While it was obvious automobiles were going to have a big impact, so many companies were in competition for the early business. Hundreds of them failed. Out of the dust rose three great enterprises, first Henry Ford and his Model T, then the rise of General Motors, the largest and most profitable enterprise in the world for decades, and finally the combination assembled by Walter Chrysler.

In Gary Hoover’s visual presentation, see the stories of these men, their companies, and their cars. The automobile transformed America – from its earliest pioneering days in the late 19th century to its dominant role in shaping our economy, culture and society today. Only by studying the ‘hot’ industries of the past, from birth through explosive growth to maturity, can we envision what the future might hold for today’s ‘hot’ companies.

Gary’s talk will be an interesting and fast paced. Free to attend. Open to all. Beverages will be served. The talk will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 15 at the Fayetteville Community Center, on Fayetteville’s town square, 107 W. Fayette Street.