In a practical sense, Ray Farabaugh took after his dad, who worked as a systems controller for what was the precursor of the former US Airways.

Among many other duties, systems controllers decide whether airliners will fly on  any particular day. Their office, the heart of an airline, never closes. 

Similarly, Farabaugh and his business partner, Mike O’Daniel, are the heart of the auto group they pilot in Indiana. 

The 11 dealerships across nine brands in the central and southwest parts of the state carry on the legacy of Joe O’Daniel, who opened an Oldsmobile store in Evansville near the Kentucky line during the depths of the Great Depression.

O’Daniel was the grandfather of Mike and Farabaugh’s wife, Mary Ellen, whose father, Pat, continued the legacy before passing it down to today’s owners in 1998.

Though Farabaugh didn’t start his career in automotive retail, he took to it quickly upon joining the family business in 1989 after a decade in various roles at Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems. 

The leadership training he gained from his time at EDS, including working on a special project for the man who later twice ran for U.S. president, has served him well at Evansville-based D-Patrick Inc. – named for his father-in-law, whose given name is Darwin, though he goes by Pat. So well that he accepted the prestigious Time Dealer of the Year award in January.

Multiple dealers nominated Farabaugh for the honor, and his name was officially submitted by the state auto dealers association, whose board he’s served on for 15 years, including filling all of its officer roles. In the end, he rose to the top of a field of 49 nominees from across the country.

Farabaugh has helped modernize the dealers association, which added a lobbyist and secured public relations help during his tenure, resulting in the passage of state bills aiding Indiana auto retail, including a law that prohibits direct-to-consumer car sales.

Despite his role in that work, he credits the D-Patrick ecosystem for the Time recognition. 

“Really, the award is about the dealership and our employees and our customers and our contribution to the community,” he says. 

Early Impressions

It’s the group’s employees in particular that form the backbone of Farabaugh’s business philosophy, which he developed from his time at EDS.

Perot’s company leadership left an impression on the fresh college graduate with degrees in – no surprise – psychology. A former mainframe computer salesman at IBM, the Texas native made a point of soliciting rank-and-file employees’ input and ensured they all completed plenty of training.

“One of the things I got from him was that he was accessible to anyone in the company,” Farabaugh recalled. “You could call his line, and he would answer.”

The company’s president and biggest stockholder would stand in line in the subsidized company café, then sit down with his meal at a table with an empty seat.

“’You mind if I sit here with you,’” he’d ask an employee at the table, Farabaugh says. “He’d ask where you were from, if you had a family, what division you worked in, what you did. And always, if there was something you’d change in your department, what would it be?”

During Farabaugh’s time at EDS, he figures he spent about eight weeks of each year in training, which he says was normal for employees there.

“One of the things that I learned from Perot and I’ve always carried is that training isn’t an expense, it’s an investment in your people,” he says. 

D-Patrick is consequently training-focused, including manufacturer training, safety training and leadership training.

People-Centered

Since Farabaugh and Mike O’Daniel took over the auto group more than a quarter-century ago, they’ve invested in exponentially more people.

The additions have accommodated several more franchises, and the company stable now includes the Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Lincoln, Mercedes, Nissan, Porsche and Volkswagen brands, all within 15 miles of each other except for one of three Ford stores near Indianapolis.

Over the years, its sales volume has also grown, as has groupwide staff by 300% to more than 500 employees.

People are in fact essentially what led Farabaugh and Mary Ellen to the auto business. 

Though Farabaugh enjoyed his time at EDS and excelled there, the couple had lived in seven different cities by the end of the decade to accommodate his series of promotions. The one constant was their penchant for making friends wherever they lived, and Farabaugh still has friends in the Missouri town where he managed his first EDS account. Still, the couple wanted to settle their young family in a community where they could belong.

Learning on the Job

When Farabaugh joined the auto group, Pat O’Daniel took him under his wing to teach him the car business since he’d thus far been immersed in the world of computers. 

Starting out as finance manager, he attended the National Automobile Dealers Association Academy, moved through the various other company leadership roles, all the way to the general manager position, and learned from colleagues along the way.

“I came from a large corporation and was really interested in process and professionalism,” he says, “and I tried to treat everyone with respect and found an opportunity to learn something from them.”

After buying the group from Pat, Farabaugh and Mike O’Daniel split up duties 50-50, Mike taking the Ford, Lincoln and Honda stores and Farabaugh overseeing the German brands and Nissan, the ones each was already working in at the time and gravitated to.

“When I got married, I owned a Porsche, and I’ve always liked German cars,” says Farabaugh, whose first car was actually a used Toyota Corolla bought with paper route and yard-mowing money matched dollar-for-dollar by his dad. 

Still, he drives whichever vehicle his sales manager “tells me to drive,” either a new model the manager wants people in town to see Farabaugh driving or one there’s a surplus of or that’s a hot new model.

Right now, that’s a gray metallic Mercedes SUV, all the better for Farabaugh to ferry around the couple’s four grandchildren when they’re in town or to cart things to their lake house.

Taking Care of Everybody

The group’s contributions to the communities it serves was a big factor in Farabaugh’s selection as Time Dealer of the Year, as the program puts a premium on philanthropy.

Since he and Mike bought the business, it has donated nearly $5 million to various causes, and the partners share that involvement. Beneficiaries range from schools and arts organizations to a zoo and mental health advocacy groups, many of which his employees and their families have an interest in.

By design, everything about the business stems from group employees, in fact. 

“I think if you take excellent care of your employees, they will take excellent care of your customers,” Farabaugh says. “We make sure their families are part of the company, as well. It might not sound very sophisticated, and it might sound a little corny, but that’s what I believe in.”

Behind the scenes, he says, his own very special person, Mary Ellen, has also helped him succeed in his adopted industry. 

“My wife has been an incredible supporter. Sometimes she tells me things I really need to know.”