Gene Crozat, founder of Santa Rosa-based G&C Auto Body, dies at 72

Gene Crozat, the colorful founder of a Santa Rosa-based auto body empire who waged long-running battles with state and local officials, including one over a parking ticket that spawned a popular philanthropic mission - feeding parking meters for holiday shoppers - died Tuesday at the age of 72.

Crozat opened G&C Auto Body with a partner in 1972 and built it into a recognized North Bay brand, in part through ubiquitous radio advertising featuring his own folksy pitches.

His success allowed him to construct a lavish, hotel-like headquarters near Corby Avenue’s Auto Row. Over five decades, he expanded the family business to 11 locations in four counties with more than 200 employees.

More recently, he became known for his philanthropic work, forming his own charity for needy families and supporting Sonoma County Children’s Village, a haven for foster children, which closed in 2015.

And each year at Christmas, he paid young people to drop coins in expired Santa Rosa parking meters in an effort to prevent people from getting tickets. The “Meter Beater” program was born in 1991 when Crozat got a ticket while Christmas shopping.

“He was a guy who wanted what’s fair and right,” said son Shawn Crozat, G&C’s chief operations officer. “If he felt he wasn’t being treated fairly, he wasn’t someone who would back down.”

Crozat was recovering from minor heart surgery at a Burlingame hospital when he suffered an allergic reaction to medication and died Tuesday afternoon, said daughter Jamie Crozat, the company’s regional office manager.

It was his second heart operation since March. He had been expected to be released Wednesday, she said.

His death shocked and saddened friends and former associates.

Anjana Utarid, former Children’s Village executive director, said Crozat was a top donor who gave tens of thousands of dollars. For three years straight, he footed the bill for all the kids and staff members to vacation at Disneyland, Utarid said.

“He was amazingly generous,” she said. “He helped so many people. It gives me chills. I was very lucky and blessed to know him.”

Pete Bezeck, a retired Allstate Insurance executive and consultant to the California Auto Body Association, said Crozat was ahead of his time, offering his own rental cars to customers before anyone else did and setting up contracts with insurance companies to make getting repairs easier.

“I always called Gene a futurist,” said Bezeck, who knew Crozat for 35 years. “He was always one or two steps ahead of anyone else in the industry.”

Born in Pennsylvania in 1944, Eugene Crozat moved west with his parents and attended Santa Rosa High School before dropping out to join the Air Force. He learned auto body skills in the military and worked at a Merced repair shop before returning to Santa Rosa.

“I came to this town with $1.40 and a pack of Pall Malls,” Crozat recalled in a 1996 story in The Press Democrat.

After working for a local auto dealership, he opened his own shop with partner Leo Gassel, who retired three years later. The business name got shortened from Gassel and Crozat to G&C Auto Body.

By 1994, Crozat was opening the doors to a new, 26,000-square-foot facility on Bellevue Avenue with Mission-style architecture, a bubbling fountain and plush furniture. To get to his office, visitors pass through a set of $30,000 oak doors.

It was unlike most car repair places.

“An auto body shop doesn’t have to have motorcycles parked out front, Penthouse fold-outs on the wall and guys trying to hide beer cans in the shop equipment,” Crozat said. “This can be a place you’d send your wife to pick up the car and feel sure she feels comfortable.”

Crozat frequently clashed with government, which he regarded as mostly unresponsive to people’s needs.

After an unyielding Santa Rosa traffic officer gave him a parking ticket moments after his time expired, he paid teenagers to circulate downtown during the holidays, pumping coins into meters and depriving the city of fines. The jab at officialdom became an annual tradition that cost Crozat a few thousand dollars each season but netted him valuable publicity.

In other disputes, he fought PG&E over plans to cut down madrone trees on his Hood Mountain ranch and sued Farmers Insurance over claims it channeled business to other shops. More recently, he criticized a decision by local authorities to stop impounding cars from unlicensed drivers and sued a competitor who he said defamed him to insurance companies.

Bezeck said “friction” was a regular part of Crozat’s business life but he never let it ruin a friendship.

“He saw things that were wrong and he wanted to correct those wrongs,” Bezeck said.

That passion extended to helping people. Crozat gave more than 100 free cars over the years to people in need. He started the Crozat Family Foundation in 2013 and has assisted more than 100 families with money for housing, food and transportation, his son, Shawn, said.

He was driven in part by his own humble beginnings.

“As a young kid he had to scrape and work his butt off,” his son said. “No one ever gave him anything. He really just cared for people.”

In addition to children Jamie and Shawn Crozat, he is survived by sons Ricky, Josh and Patrick, as well as his wife of 38 years, Teri. A funeral is planned for 4 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Badger Road in Santa Rosa.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.