Prochnow services are Friday

Funeral services for former auto dealer Ella Prochnow will be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Muehlig Funeral Chapel with the Rev. Orval L.E. Willimann officiating. Burial will be in Bethlehem Cemetery. Visitation will be Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the funeral home.
Prochnow, 88, died Tuesday at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. She was one of the first women in the country to hold an automobile dealership when she took over the Ann Arbor Buick Service Co. in 1930 after her husband's death. The dealership was founded in 1923 by Walter A. Prochnow.
She guided the dealership through the Depression. "I met each day as it came," she said in a 1964 interview. "I did know that income must be greater than outgo and based my business on this simple but essential point."
Except for the car repair work, she handled every aspect of the business, keeping business records and helping with car sales. The dealership prospered and eventually expanded. Her son, Walter, took over the role of manager in 1954, but she stayed on to handle much of the administrative work in the dealership, working long hours with the rest of her staff.
A graduate of the University of Michigan and valedictorian of her Ann Arbor High School class in 1914, she served as treasurer of the city Automobile Dealers Association for three decades.
She was also past president of the Zonta Club, a professional women's club, and treasurer of Zonta International. She was a life member of the Ann Arbor Women's City Club and a member of the Sara Brown Smith Alumnae Association. She was a former member of the Barton Hills Country Club.
Prochnow is survived by two children, son Walter A. and daughter Elizabeth R. (Bette) Hogan, and by two sisters,