BRENTWOOD, Tenn. -- Import parts industry legend Randy St. John died July 20. He was 81 years old. Industry colleague Ira Davis submitted the following remembrance:

Randy will be long remembered for his significant contributions to the automotive import parts industry. Beginning his automotive parts experience in the early 1950s as a partner in Brigham-St. John, an import parts specialist located in Southern California, Randy built a solid demand for British, French, Italian and German car parts in his market. After aligning with Beck Distributing in the early 1960s, Randy joined the Beck family and his company became the west coast operation for Beck, later becoming Beck/Arnley Corp. of California. He ran the west coast operation for Beck successfully adding a solid customer base and built strong business and personal relationships throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1984, Beck/Arnley was acquired by GKN and Randy continued to be an integral part of the growth of the organization under the GKNAIP umbrella. Shortly after the acquisition, and a protracted illness of then President Bill Arnowitz, Randy was named president of Beck/Arnley Corp. and moved to Long Island, N.Y., to run the company, as a separate division of GKNAIP. Not more than a year into his position he was again tapped to head up the entire North American import aftermarket division (GKNAIP) of GKN and moved to its Nashville, Tenn., headquarters.

Within two years of his move to Nashville, GKN decided that they wanted to exit the distribution business and sold the aftermarket division to Echlin Inc., a company who not only recognized the growth potential of the import parts business but who also saw the leadership and relationships that Randy had built as a cornerstone of their future success.

Throughout Randy’s tenure in Nashville he completed four highly successful acquisitions and grew the business to close to $300 million, certainly the largest U.S. importer of parts for foreign nameplates at the time. Randy retired from the company at the end of 1997. He shortly thereafter became a SCORE volunteer, dedicating time on top of his 60-hour work week, to help others with a dream of their own.

Randy gave unselfishly to the industry he loved and was actively involved in Auto International Association and served as chairman, a task which is not just an honorary position but rather one that requires involvement, dedication and a true desire to help the industry. He was a charter member of the association and never missed a show or meeting.

Randy St. John will always be remembered as “the gentleman” in our industry. Whoever he touched took an instant liking to him. His words were always kind and he would do anything to help whoever was asking. Randy always looked for the positive and had a kind word for everyone. He was someone to look up to and emulate, and, for me, he was a mentor, an advocate and, most importantly, a true friend.

Service will be held at 10am, Saturday, July 26 at Brentwood United, 309 Franklin Road, Brentwood, Tenn. Visitation will start at 9am.