Obituaries in Brief
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JOHN REILLY, 77, AUTOMOBILE IMPORTER
John E. “Jack” Reilly, an auto industry pioneer who helped start the American operations of foreign carmakers such as Volkswagen, Porsche, and Isuzu, died Friday in California. He was 77.
Reilly was a top executive at General Motors Corp. when he left the domestic auto industry in 1963. Through the years, he was national sales manager at Volkswagen Cars of America, president of Porsche/Audi of North America, and a co-owner of independent Toyota distributorships.
In 1980, Reilly became the founding American executive of American Isuzu Motors Inc. He established Isuzu’s North American headquarters in Los Angeles County’s City of Industry and helped introduce American drivers to the sport utility vehicle and the compact pickup truck.
Under his leadership, Isuzu’s national network grew to 560 dealerships and the Isuzu Trooper became one of the country’s most popular trucks. Isuzu sales peaked at 120,000 a year in 1988.
As chairman of American Isuzu, he was the only non-Japanese to hold the chairmanship of a Japanese owned import brand in the United States.
THOMAS FOGLIETTA, 75, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ITALY
Thomas Foglietta, a South Philadelphia politician who served for 17 years in Congress and later was named American ambassador to Italy, died Saturday in Philadelphia. He was 75.
Foglietta, the son of a city councilman from a heavily Italian ward, was 26 years old when he was first elected as a Republican to the City Council, in 1955. He served on the council for 19 years and ran as a Republican in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Democratic Mayor Frank Rizzo in 1975.
Foglietta won election to Congress as an independent in 1980 and eventually switched to the Democratic Party.
“He and (former House Speaker) Tip O’Neill were very close,” said Michael Foglietta, who managed his uncle’s House campaigns.
President Clinton named Foglietta ambassador to Italy in 1997, and he later returned to Philadelphia, where he worked as a lawyer and lobbyist for international clients.