Romilio Marinelli has turned his "short stop" in Toledo, Ohio, into something more. He calls the automotive part of his business his "security blanket," according to an April 23 story by senior business writer Homer Brickey in the Toledo Blade.

When Marinelli came to Toledo from Philadelphia in 1963, he didn’t plan to be there very long.

"I figured it would last three to five years," Marinelli said. "Well, it lasted a lot longer than that." He’s still in Toledo, 38 years later, long after his employer, a bank, disappeared in the takeover binge of the 1980s.

Marinelli, 73, is president of Rome Marinelli & Associates, a firm that handles several types of financing, including car leasing and sales, along with mobile-home mortgages and insurance.

A native of Naples, Italy, Marinelli came to the United States on a steamship in 1930 as the 2-year-old son of a tailor who immigrated to South Philadelphia, according to Brickey's story in the Blade. He is proud of his Italian heritage, as evidenced by his business card that features Rome’s Colosseum.

Long before he started his own company, Marinelli -- trained by General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) -- helped the former First National Bank of Toledo get into the auto-financing business. That was his reason for coming to Toledo in 1963. His former employer is now part of Fifth Third Bank.

Marinelli got a big break in 1968 when he succeeded in getting four car dealers to sign up for floor-plan financing through First National. In time, the bank became the largest auto lender in the Toledo market. In the 1970s, he pioneered the bank’s mobile-home lending program and, in the 1980s, auto leasing.

Marinelli incorporated his own business in 1985, left the bank at the end of 1986, and by 1987 was in business for himself. He has operated in several parts of Toledo.

His business occupies half of a 4,000-square-foot renovated and expanded building that once housed a series of restaurants. He bought the building, rebuilt it, and doubled its size. He figures he has put about $500,000 into the structure.

Part of the rebuilding cost was $30,000 for a dome, "so it wouldn’t look like just another used-car lot." The automotive half of his business, Rome Marinelli Motor Cars, is the sale and leasing of cars -- especially late models that still have factory warranty remaining. "That gives me a security blanket," Marinelli said.

At any given time, he has about a dozen vehicles worth $250,000 or so, he said. One recent day the inventory included a 1998 Corvette, a 2000 Mercury Sable, a 1999 Ford Taurus, and a 2001 Mercury Mountaineer. His firm also handles auto leasing for a number of Toledo-area companies.