The Automotive Distribution Network is mourning the loss of an icon in the auto-care industry, Wilson Maurice McMillion, 86, who passed away July 28 in Fort Worth, Texas. The co-founder, owner and CEO of W M Automotive, McMillion will be remembered as a family man, a man of faith, and a successful businessman whose office door was literally always open to anyone who worked for the Fort Worth-based Parts Plus member.
Born on Sept. 23, 1931, to a family of sharecroppers in Midlothian, Texas, McMillion learned the value of a strong work ethic at an early age. After beginning his career as a 19-year-old parts puller for a local warehouse, McMillion was 45 when he and his first wife, Pat, started their own business, investing a few thousand dollars they’d saved and borrowing the rest from family.
Of those lean years in W M’s history, McMillion later said, “It was never a question of whether or not we were going to make it work—we had to make it work. This was my life, the one thing I had. And I had to put food on the table for my family. Along with three other employees, our family knew we had to put in long hours to make it work, so we rolled up our sleeves and did it.”
For information on Wilson McMillion’s funeral arrangements, please visit https://wmautomotive.com/.
Operating under the brands of Parts Plus, Parts Plus Mexico, IAPA and Auto Pride, the Automotive Distribution Network is one of the largest, most diverse program groups in the industry. For more information, contact Laura Guy at Network Headquarters, 3085 Fountainside Dr., Ste. 210, Germantown, TN, 38138. (901) 682-9090.
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