ATLANTA -
Darryll Ceccoli, 63, a driving force behind Manheim becoming a national auction chain, passed away this past Sunday, Auto Remarketing learned this morning.
The one-time president and chief executive officer, as well as chief operating officer of Manheim, liked to go undercover at the Manheim auctions, according to his obituary in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
He “got his hands dirty washing cars while not letting the local crew members know he was a corporate big-wig. The title on his business card simply read ‘employee,’” according to the newspaper.
The newspaper quoted Diane Barton, Manheim vice president of customer experience, as saying, “He was doing that ‘Undercover Boss’ thing long ago. It was just in his nature.”
Ceccoli spent 27 years with Manheim. The company confirmed Ceccoli’s passing.
In a statement from Manheim this morning, the company indicated to Auto Remarketing that Ceccoli’s career with Manheim spanned three decades and many regions of the country with “a tremendous impact on the wholesale automobile auction industry.”
When he joined Manheim in May 1975 as assistant general manager of National Auto Dealers Exchange in Bordentown, N.J., the company had 12 auctions in the eastern part of the U.S., in addition to 2,500 employees, and handled about 360,000 vehicles a year.
When Ceccoli retired from Manheim in 2002, the company had 83 auctions throughout the U.S., two auctions in Canada, 32,000 employees, as well as operations in the United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand. The company handled more than 10 million vehicles annually.
According to the obituary, he passed away at his Canton home of natural causes.
The funeral will be held noon Saturday at the Lawrence E. Young Funeral Home in Clarks Summit, Pa., with a viewing at 10 a.m. Arrangements for a memorial service in Georgia have apparently not yet been revealed.
When Ceccoli’s best friend Michael Fisher passed away in a plane crash in 1998, the former Manheim executive helped the Fisher family create an endowment for the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center, which was named in his best friend’s honor.
Manheim helped raise more than $5 million to support the center, and donations for the center are requested in lieu of flowers.
In addition to his wife, Katrina, and sister, Demaris Farrell, Ceccoli is survived by his mother, Helen Ceccoli; a brother, Joseph Ceccoli; and three nephews and nieces.
For more information on Ceccoli and his impact on the auction industry, stay tuned to Auto Remarketing Today.