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Hemet-area car sales manager is boxer, too 12:14 AM PDT on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 By DIANE A. RHODES Richard J. Perry brings his business know-how to the sport of boxing and his experience with fighters to his sales job. Balancing both worlds keeps him conditioned to handle many projects. As a direct sales manager for Gosch Auto Group, Perry created VIP service for his car-buying clients. As a member of the World Boxing Hall of Fame, he is hoping to open a boxing museum in Hemet. Perry has been in automobile sales in the San Jacinto Valley for 24 years, since earning an associate's degree from College of the Desert. He has worked in every department a car dealership has to offer, eventually becoming a general sales manager. "I was a waiter while in college and sales is really the same thing," said Perry, 43. About two years ago, Perry took 10 months off to spend time with his family -- his wife, Tessie, and their seven children. "I wanted to go to some dance recitals and baseball games," said Perry. The five girls and two boys range in age from 7 to 22. When Perry returned to auto sales a year ago, he decided he didn't want to work at one car dealership. He created a fleet-type program for companies to offer as a benefit to their employees and offers his service at the Gosch Auto Group, which has six dealerships. Perry said nobody else in the area is doing what he does. "People always told me they hated the process of buying a car -- having to go back and forth (between the salesman and financial manager)," said Perry. "People know what they want; consumers are much more educated these days." When he asked some of the famous boxers he knows how they go about buying cars he was told they use brokers. So he designed a way to cut out the middleman. "When you've been doing this for 24 years, you learn it's all about developing relationships," said Perry. "You become part of the family. I've been invited to weddings and funerals." He has developed strong bonds with boxers, too, lending his talent and support to the annual Battle of the Badges, which will have its 10th round on Oct.21. Whether it's being in exhibition rounds for the crowd or working corners for other fighters, Perry has been involved since the first one. "He's a fabulous person and that became evident when I first met him," said Jeff Penn, program director for California Police Youth Charities, which benefits from the badge battles. The fundraiser pits police officers and others against each other in exhibition boxing matches. "He has helped out every year in some way, shape or form. And I was pleasantly surprised to see he had some real boxing skills." In 2005, Perry was invited to join the World Boxing Hall of Fame's board of directors in for his contributions to amateur boxing. "I'm the co-founder of amateur boxing in our valley," said Perry, who moved to Murrieta three years ago after living in Hemet for about 20 years. He started the San Jacinto Valley School of the Arts Boxing program in the late 1980s. "You get voted in," said Perry. He said the other board members are people he had always read about. "When I sit there at board meetings I feel like I don't belong. These are important decision makers who do good things for the sport." Growing up in some of the tougher neighborhoods near Los Angeles and Indio, he joined a youth boxing program to learn the sport, not how to beat someone up. The first professional boxing match Perry ever saw was one with Armando Muniz, who is past board president for the nonprofit organization that was established in 1979 by Everett L. Sanders. On Oct.13, the World Boxing Hall of Fame will present its 28th annual Banquet of Champions and honor the 2007 inductees, including former heavyweight boxing champion Larry Holmes and amateur boxer turned famed referee Joe Cortez. |