Uncrowned Community Builders

Grace Tate is the daughter of Joseph Brown (deceased) and Arwilla Cardwell. Her father was from New York City and came to Buffalo in the late 1940ââ?¬â?¢s and worked for Symington Wayne and later at the University at Buffalo in Housekeeping. Her mother is from Laurel, Mississippi and came to Buffalo in 1943. Her mother worked for years as a nurseââ?¬â?¢s aide at Millard Fillmore and still does in-home care work. Grace was born January 4, 1952 and is the youngest of five children. She has three sisters and one brother. She attended public schools 16, 17, 18, 93, 54; Genesee Humboldt and Woodlawn Junior High Schools; Bennett High School and East High. She attended two years at the University at Buffalo. There are six generations of her family still living in Buffalo. The matriarch of the family is her 94 year old grandmother, Bessie Josey.

Graceââ?¬â?¢s professional career started at AT&Tââ?¬â?¢s New York Telephone Company where she worked for 15 years before the company divested in 1985. She accepted a buyout package and began a new career as a yellow-pages salesperson with the Berry Company. After several promotions, she relocated to Dayton Ohio as the Division Manager responsible for publishing over 60 telephone directories throughout the Midwest.

After a few years of successfully managing this division, The Sprint Corporation bought the company, and it was at this point Grace decided to consider a career as an entrepreneur. As fate would have it, while reading a magazine on an airplane in 1998, she saw an advertisement recruiting auto dealer candidates. Grace saw this as the opportunity to begin her journey to become that auto dealer she envisioned. Grace returned to Buffalo in 1998 to pursue an automotive career. She began Fordââ?¬â?¢s Minority Dealer Program in 1999, and was placed at Brockport Ford under the mentoring of Bob Johnson. When Mr. Johnson retired in 2002, Grace bought the dealership. She was President of Brockport Ford until 2004. Grace is now in partnership with Randy Henderson at the newly opened Greece Ridge Lincoln Mercury Nissan in Greece, New York where she is the General Manager.

Grace has always been an active participant within her community, most notably with the Buffalo Urban League. She served for many years as Guild President and a member of the Board of Directors. She is active not only in her church, First Shiloh Baptist Church, but also with programs in the Rochester area such as the Austin Steward Business Exchange and a mentorship program at Freddie Thomas Learning Center and Franklin High School. Grace is President of A New Day Now, a not-for-profit organization of Rochester African American auto dealers; there are three of them, who give monetary support to local organizations and churches primarily involving youth development.

Grace was married to Robert Adams for 10 years and Ralph Tate, now deceased, for fifteen years. She is the proud mother of two adult sons and grandmother of two. She resides in Brockport. She is a lover of jazz and her pastimes include leisure travel and browsing through book and music stores.