News

By Liz Best
    
BOCA RATON — Gene Ehlers will be remembered not only for his professional accomplishments, but also for the way he lived day-to-day: with elegance, dignity, generosity and an ever-present twinkle in his eye.
    “I hope everyone will live the way he did,” his stepdaughter, Jackie Westerfield, said. “The world would be a better place. And that twinkle in his eye — it seemed like he knew something the rest of us don’t know.”
Mr. Ehlers, 83, died at his Boca Raton home on July 18.
A native of Reinbeck, Iowa, Mr. Ehlers served in the United States Army before launching a successful business career. He worked in both sales and management positions before purchasing General Leaseways Inc. in 1971. Mr. Ehlers grew General Leaseways from a small local car and truck-leasing company to the second largest family owned truck rental and leasing firm in the nation. Renamed General Car and Truck Leasing System Inc., the operation owned more than 5,000 trucks in 13 states. He also began General Logistics, a specialized trucking company, in 1987.
    After moving to Florida in 1988, he and his wife, Carolyn, founded Grandview Preparatory School of Boca Raton in 1997. Mr. Ehlers also served on the board of trustees for Lynn University and was a longtime member of the Congregational Church of Boca Raton.
    “It was always a pleasure to see Gene and his family entering our church for worship nearly every Sunday morning, all with smiling hellos,” said the church’s lay leader, Sarah Hugus.
    In the eulogy she delivered at his memorial service, his stepdaughter credited the man she called “Dad” for shaping her world.
    “The world I know was made possible by this hardworking, brilliant, witty, often stubborn, always generous, man from Iowa,” she wrote. “In my entire life I never (witnessed him) curse, keep his hat on indoors, or do anything the easy way. From the smallest to the largest of things, he stood taller and walked further than what was expected.”
    In addition to his wife and stepdaughter, Mr. Ehlers is survived by two sons, Michael Ehlers and David Ehlers; a daughter, Jamie Ehlers; and eight grandchildren.
    A memorial service was held July 25 at the Congregational Church of Boca Raton. The family asks that memorial donations be made to the church, the Grandview Foundation, or Hospice By The Sea.