The Harwood family was well-known during the years it operated Harwood Buick/Pontiac at 6095 N. Monroe St. near the Nadeau Road intersection. It was at a time when Detroit’s Big 3 were still building full car lines and the majority of area customers were buying American.

In 1964, Edwin R. Harwood and his wife, Angeline (Plantamura), moved from their hometown of Ionia to Monroe because they had acquired Harwood Buick/Pontiac.

Son Edwin L. Harwood, born Feb. 15, 1955, in Ionia, bought his first stock as a child, using the money he had earned delivering newspapers, as described at the Harwood Investment Strategies’ website. After graduating from Michigan State University, where he majored in finance, he went to work for his dad at the dealership in Monroe for 30 years. Times were good, as the buying public continued to focus their vehicle purchases on popular lines like GM’s Buick and Pontiac brands.

Edwin and his son John owned and develop Harwood Plaza, covering 77 acres off of LaPlaisance Road and built in 1989.

Many spoke of the Harwoods’ service. According to local historian Dick Micka, “I bought Buicks from Ed Harwood before I switched to Lincolns. Ed was a great guy, and I bought a Buick with a diesel engine from him. I think it was experimental...”

As was reported by Phillip E. Ross in an Aug. 10, 1987, New York Times article, Edwin L. Harwood, sales manager for Ed Harwood Buick-Pontiac of Monroe, was reported to have said customers generally preferred the cut-rate financing to the cash rebates. But some affluent customers had begun to favor rebates because the new tax code curtailed the deductibility of consumer interest.

The paper was reporting from the showrooms-in-tents on Saturday at the Monroe County Fair that year and, as tradition would have it, many visitors took time out from horse and pig exhibitions to inspect the showrooms-in-tents of local dealers.

Edwin L. Harwood married the former Pamela K. Sinas at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Lansing on Aug. 27, 1977. He started Harwood Investment Strategies in Monroe, which he owned with his son Eddie (who became a member of the firm in 2015) and, later, son Tony (who became a member in 2017). Edwin L. Harwood was on the board of directors at Monroe Bank & Trust, an active Rotarian and active at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Toledo. He died Sept. 29, 2016.

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Owen Bugnaski of Tampa, Florida wrote about Edwin L.’s passing, “I had the pleasure and rewarding experience to work under Ed's leadership at Harwood Buick/Pontiac back in the early 1980s… He definitely left a lasting impression on me.

Local restauranteurs Jackie and Fred Corser wrote, “We enjoyed seeing the Harwood family regularly in our restaurant. ... Our children also went to school together at Monroe High. He will be missed.”

— Tom Adamich is president of Visiting Librarian Service, a firm he has operated since 1993. He also is project archivist for the Greening Nursery Co. and Family Archives and the electric vehicle awareness coordinator at Monroe County Community College.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Harwood Buick/Pontiac was a longtime area auto dealership