Gary Venner Obituary, Death – Gary Venner of Southlake, Texas has unexpectedly passed away on Monday, December 19, 2022, after battling cancer. Gary was the former general manager at Park Place Lexus Grapevine. Gary began his career with Park Place Dealerships in 2003 as the General Manager of Park Place Lexus Plano. He was a member of the Park Place Lexus team that won the Malcolm Baldrige Award in 2005. This award is the highest presidential accolade in the United States in terms of performance achievement. For the first time, Park Place, a vehicle dealership, received the prestigious award.
In the year 2020, Gary stated that getting the Malcolm Baldrige Award was a career highlight. “I’m not so much proud of what I’ve accomplished as I am of what we’ve accomplished together. My career in the automobile industry allowed me to make friendships that will last a lifetime. These ties have grown not only with coworkers, but also with customers, whom I have come to respect as first and foremost as friends.
From 2014 until 2017, Venner was president of Park Place Dealerships, but he missed the one-on-one contacts that could be made at the dealership level. He was the general manager of Lexus Grapevine before becoming the general manager of Park Place Jaguar-Land Rover DFW in Grapevine in 2019. After four decades of marriage, Gary and Kayla Venner recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. Kayla died three weeks before Gary after losing her battle with cancer. Morgan and Colton will be the only ones who remember them.
Gary Venner was inducted into the Carroll ISD Athletics Hall of Honor in 2021 after his accomplishments in baseball, track, and football were acknowledged. He graduated from Southlake High School in 1976, along with only 53 other pupils. He also caught games for Ranger Junior College in 1978, when the team won the NJCAA World Series. In addition, in 1979, he played baseball at the University of Texas, when his team finished fifth in the College World Series. Gary was selected in the amateur draft by the Texas Rangers in 1980. For four seasons, he played and coached for minor league clubs in North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa.