John McLeod Pugmire, who founded the Pugmire Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Atlanta and later moved operations to Marietta, has died. He was 89.
Born in China in 1919, Mr. Pugmire was the son of Salvation Army missionaries. After spending much of his childhood in Japan, Mr. Pugmire moved with his family to Atlanta in the 1930s. He graduated from Boys High School in 1937.
During World War II, Mr. Pugmire was a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He was a Japanese interpreter and interpreted at one of the war’s surrender ceremonies in Yokosuka, Japan.
In 1960, he bought his first automobile dealership in downtown Atlanta at North Avenue and West Peachtree Street. The dealership moved to Marietta in 1967.
Mr. Pugmire retired in 1981, and his son, Richard Pugmire, became president of the company. Now in its third generation of family ownership, the company has three locations in Cobb County, two in Marietta and one in Kennesaw.
Mr. Pugmire died Thursday. The funeral was Monday.
Survivor include his wife, Minnette Pugmire; two sons, Richard Pugmire and John Pugmire Jr.; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
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