Roy Edwin O'Brien was born in Lisbon, Arkansas, on August 8, 1895, and married Clara Estelle Leslie of Alpena, Michigan, on February 8, 1919. They had three children: Mary, Gloria, and Roy Jr. In 1945, he purchased a house in St. Clair Shores and began working as a regional sales manager for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, but because his travel kept him away from his young family, he accepted an opportunity to open his own dealership. On March 14, 1946, Roy Edwin O'Brien Sr. opened the Ford dealership in an existing building on the northwest corner of Nine Mile and Mack with a $50,000 investment, ten employees, and no new cars for sale because of the shift from automotive to wartime production. The building had previously housed the police and fire stations in the early 1930s. Ten days after opening, he felt discouraged as rain fell outside his new business, but when the first customer entered the service department, he hurried over to greet him and everyone in the building applauded. In 1955, Roy O'Brien held the title of the largest Ford dealer in Michigan, and at that time the Gaylords recorded the ad, "Get On the Right Track to 9 Mile and Mack." The first major expansion came in 1960, the showrooms were remodeled in the early 1990s, green technology was adopted in 2010, and in 2016 the O'Brien family celebrated the business's 70th anniversary while beginning the largest facility renovation in its history, including plans to expand the service department, relocate the parts department, and construct a new vehicle showroom, with Roy Patrick O'Brien instrumental in the design and execution. In 2017, the fourth-generation family operation continued as Macomb County's oldest dealership, with more than one hundred employees, a large inventory of new and used vehicles, and a success the family credited to support from the surrounding community.