Meet the Franchise Historian

Joe Ring, the unofficial and self-proclaimed Kings Ford Franchise Historian, credits his love of history to his father, Bob. Well before operating Kings Ford – and formerly RS Ford – as Dealer and President from 1979 to 2022, Bob secured a Bachelor of Arts in History during his undergraduate studies at Richmond University from 1962 to 1966. When Joe was evaluating what subject to select as his major at Xavier University, Bob’s advice in 2002 was to study what strikes your passion; Bob also thought history was a highly practical area of study that helped him in business with communication and organizing information comprehensively. Bob was known in the family for loving history so much that in the late evening hours of the night, he was often found reading one of his many volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover; an incredible generalist on almost any historical topic, Bob was reputed in the family as having read the entire Encyclopedia from A to Z no less than five times.

Joe concentrated on Elizabethan and Jacobean history during his studies at Xavier University, although he also authored several extensive research papers on subjects specific to the early years of Cincinnati’s regional history. He fully embraced the humanities with minors in English, Theatre, Theology, and Catholicism and Culture. Joe was honored his Senior Year with one of the three prestigious All Honors Day History Department awards: the W. Eugene Shields,

S.J. Award. Upon graduating from Xavier in 2006, Joe was initially frustrated with obstacles that his History Degree posed to securing a job in Business Finance. To launch his career with the right Company, he had to secure his Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance; Xavier provided a unique avenue to help pay for his graduate studies while serving as one of two Graduate Assistants (GAs) employed by the Xavier University James A. Glenn Writing Center.

Eventually securing an entry position at Ernst and Young (EY) in its Risk Services practice, Joe would advance to the rank of Manager after five years. Although the early years at EY offered a steep learning curve in various technical areas, the History and English background at Xavier served Joe well with written proposals, reports, and communication. Wary from the several years of serving as consultant “road warrior” with a young and growing family, Joe departed EY and rejoined Kings Ford – his former high school summer employer growing up – in 2014 as their COO.

After Joe rejoined Kings Ford in 2014, Bob and Joe’s sister Carol Fuller would reference a contact at Fifth Third Bank – Tony Isaacs – who previously claimed to Bob around the 2005 timeframe that the Kings Ford franchise was initially founded in Loveland around the year 1915. Tony is known locally as a hobby historian that specializes in Cincinnati’s early automotive industry history. Tony even referenced an historical book published by the Greater Loveland Historical Society that would later serve as one of the key references for Joe’s broader franchise history website subpages (see source 6, Beller, on kingsfordinc.com/history-sources).

Over the years, Joe would have chance encounters with various elements of the franchise history, especially through anecdotal retellings or older papers from Bob, Carol, his brother-in-law Doug Fuller, and long-time Parts Manager Rocky Ridener. Around 2020, Joe began dedicating greater concentration to the founder of the franchise according to Tony Isaacs: Victor “Vic” Shumard.

Eventually discovering an incredible new treasure trove of information on Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com, Joe began piecing together corroborative elements that indeed confirmed that the franchise truly was founded in 1915. Employing the help of his wife, Meredith Ring, Joe was able to source key reference books from the Cincinnati Public Library system, especially sources 1, 3, 6, and 9 as listed on kingsfordinc.com/history- sources. After a meager five months of reviewing the key source material, Joe’s life was quickly imperiled by his spouse’s wrath when her displeasure escalated at the library books becoming well overdue after she had maximized the number of times she could renew the books in good standing. Despite his best efforts, Joe could not possibly locate his personal Cincinnati Public Library card to renew the books under his own name. Thankfully, he was able to finalize his research in the nick of time with minimal overdue fees on Meredith’s Public Library Account.

Parlaying the 110th history of the franchise in 2025 with the 45th anniversary of Bob’s purchase of the franchise in 2024, Kings Ford launched a multi-month celebration of their store milestones in September of 2024. The culmination of the celebration was realized when the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) invited Joe to receive the prestigious Century Award at the 2025 Convention in New Orleans, acknowledging and validating the many hours Joe spent chronicling the history of the Kings Ford franchise.

Aside from supporting the operations of Kings Ford with leadership responsibilities related to Compliance, Accounting, Finance, Information Technology, Employee Benefits and Retirement, Process Improvement, and Capital Projects – Joe today also enjoys researching his own family tree in his spare time and recently began engaging with the Sons of the American Revolution and WikiTree.com as a Wiki Genealogist.

Joe continues to enjoy collecting historical information about the franchise and welcomes all stories, pictures, or scholarly sources that any customers or interested parties happen to encounter. If you encounter any historical material as described, please contact Joe at [email protected].