(BRAIN) — Ron Kozy, an industry leader who ran Kozy’s Cyclery in Chicago for more than 60 years, died Oct. 11 at 82.
When he was 10 years old, Ron worked in the store that his father founded, he said in an interview on a Schwinn blog. He started out cleaning shelves and sweeping the floors.
“I got paid a dime an hour, which in 1952 made me the richest kid on the block. You didn't have electric registers then, so I would go over and punch the buttons to take my dime out every hour and put it in a special secret place,” he said.
Ron’s father Stanley died when Ron was 17 and Ron dropped out of high school to take over the business. “So I am a high school drop out. I’m pretty proud of that,” he said in the blog interview. “A lot of bike dealers and friends helped me out when I was just getting started. I was only 17, but they were there to look up to,” he continued.
His father had been president of the National Bicycle Dealers Association and so had his uncle Teddy. In the 1970s Ron served as president. He also was a past president of the Chicagoland Bicycle Dealers Association (CABDA), which Stanley had founded. Ron helped launch CABDA's trade show in the 1970s, said Keith Mistrik, who later served as show director.
As an industry leader, Kozy was a proponent of maintaining retail margins and always urged fellow dealers to stop giving away goods and services. Most famously, he bought himself a Rolls Royce with the proceeds from selling kickstands, at a very high margin, with every bike sold at his stores. He wasn’t showing off — he was educating fellow dealers, his son Paul told BRAIN.
“He would tell people that when you sell 5,000 bikes a year and you sell a kickstand with every one, you can pay for a Rolls Royce,” Paul said. He said he later bought a Jaguar and then a Mercedes with kickstand revenues.
Paul said his outgoing father was “the life of the party,” at industry events, and “a ball buster to the industry and vendors about margins.”
Like his father, Paul joined the business as a child and now runs that three-store chain. Ron retired in 2018.
"Ron Kozy’s leadership as a past president of the NBDA, along with his father Stanley, has left an indelible mark on our industry and our community of retailers," said Heather Mason, NBDA's current president. "At this time of his passing, we not only mourn but reflect on the incredible legacy he created. The Kozy family’s contributions have shaped the path of the NBDA to where it is today, and for that, I am personally thankful. On behalf of the NBDA Board of Directors, past and present, and our entire member community, we extend our deepest condolences to the Kozy family," Mason said.
Ron is survived by Paul, grandchildren Nicholas Koziel and Colleen Koziel, and siblings Nancy (Wayne) Brongel, James Koziel and the late Elaine Pettke. He is also survived by his ex-wife Barbara Carten and his stepchildren Catherine (Michael) Crisanti, Jane Carten and the late Susan Carten.
A chapel service is planned for Wednesday at 10:00 am at the Wolniak Funeral Home, 5700 S. Pulaski Rd. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made in memory of Ron to the Dementia Society of America at dementiasociety.org/donate. More information on the services at wolniakfuneralhome.com/obituary/ronald-kozy-koziel.
