Joe Girard, a retired car salesman who went on to become a best-selling author and world-famous inspirational speaker, died Feb. 28 at age 90.

He did not recover after injuries from falling backward while walking up the basement steps at his home in Grosse Pointe Shores.

Girard was a high school dropout who went on to sell 13,001 cars at a Chevrolet dealership between 1963 and 1978, then became a paid speaker and author of "How to Sell Anything to Anybody" and "How to Close Every Sale."

He was listed by Guinness World Records as selling the most new cars in a single year — 1,425 in 1973 — and sued last year when Dearborn car salesman Ali Reda applied to be listed for selling 1,530 new vehicles in 2017. Guinness, which acknowledged being contacted by Girard, backed away from the question, telling the Free Press in August that it couldn't verify Reda's sales and had decided to "rest" the category.

Girard fell at home on Feb. 26, suffering a traumatic brain injury, according to the death certificate, issued by Wayne County. It lists the death as an accident. First responders arrived at the home "within seconds" of a 911 call and transported Girard to Ascension St. John Hospital on Moross, said Lt. Scott Rohr of the Grosse Pointe Shores Public Safety Department.

Girard died at the hospital two days later.

A dignitymemorial.com page hosted by Kaul Funeral Home of St. Clair Shores says simply, “Joseph Sam Girardi was born on November 1, 1928 and passed away on February 28, 2019. No memorial services are planned at this time.”

The death certificate says that the body was cremated.

Joseph Sam Girardi was born on Nov. 1, 1928, to Sicilian parents. At age 9, he patrolled neighborhood bars for shoeshine customers. By age 11, he was delivering copies of the Detroit Free Press before school. Girard, who is listed both as Girard and Girardi in news accounts, prided himself on overcoming odds. He later dropped the vowel at the end of his name.

His death certificate notes his 11th-grade education.

Born in a 'deplorable' ghetto

“He was born on the east side of Detroit, Michigan, in one of the city’s most deplorable ghettos. He lived about one mile from one of his earliest heroes, Joe Louis, who escaped from poverty and became heavyweight champion boxer of the world while Joe was still a struggling adolescent,” reads his biography at joegirard.com.

“The initial struggle began with his own father, Antonino Girardi, an extremely poor man of Sicilian birth who found no success in his new country and vented his bitterness, both physically and emotionally, upon his younger son. Joe often speculates as to whether his father’s behavior was the carefully planned campaign of a man who desperately wished to challenge his son. Whatever the truth, the senior Girardi chose to constantly berate his son with the message that Joe would never amount to anything worthwhile. This was Joe’s first spark: the determination to prove that his father had been wrong,” the website says.

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Girard wrote of a childhood filled with struggle involving his father, who ordered the boy to leave their home regularly.

"From the age of 14, Joe spent many of his nights sleeping in boxcars at the Grand Trunk Railroad yards, located directly across the street from his home. In bad weather, he used 25¢ a night flop houses," says Girard's biography. "At this age he was now able to seek more rewarding employment after school, such as dishwasher, dock loader at the produce terminal, delivery boy, and pageboy at the Book-Cadillac Hotel. He also devoted some evenings to the neighborhood pool hall, trying to hustle additional dollars. He lived with the constant fear that if he didn’t bring home sufficient money he would have to face his father’s anger."

A sales legend

Girard established practices that are now standard in the sales industry. He retired from Merollis Chevrolet after Christmas 1977 at age 49 to become a motivational speaker and author of five books.

He and his wife, Kitty, have run joegirard.com, a website labeled "World's Greatest Salesman."

It offers books, CD and DVD collections ranging in price from $13.99 to $295. There's a No. 1 gold lapel pin for $24.95. “Get the jump on your competition. Order the 'Joe Girard Supreme Collection’ RIGHT NOW!”

The website offers advice for selling houses, boats, motor homes, insurance and automobiles. He lists testimonials from Harvard Business School, Chevrolet, Sea Ray, John Deere, Honda, Oral Roberts University, the Federal Reserve Bank, Allstate Insurance and Mary Kay Cosmetics. A quote attributed to CBS says, “His presentation was by far the most exciting and dynamic talk that we have experienced in years."

Fans won’t have the opportunity to say goodbye during a service, but they are invited to leave comments on a dignitymemorial.com site.

“Our condolences to Joe Jr, Grace, and Kitty. He was an awesome man, good friend and a man who accomplished more than most people could. Great motivator and a winner who Resonated his message to many all over the world. The world lost a great one!” posted Robert and Elizabeth Mohr on March 2.

Reda, the Dearborn car salesman, admired him. “He’s an absolute legend in the industry," Reda said last year. "Your whole career, you’re chasing his name.”

Girard sold cars at Merollis Chevrolet in Eastpointe. It was there that he decided to change his name.

His biography at joegirard.com explained, "One day an Italian man came in to buy a car. Joe had the deal all set until the customer asked Joe what nationality he was. Joe said that he was Sicilian. When the customer heard that, he blew up and said 'I wouldn’t buy a car from a Diego' (sic) and walked out. (“Diego” (sic) is a derogatory term for someone of Sicilian decent.) When that happened, Joe called his printer and told him to drop the 'i' off of 'Girardi' and make it 'Girard.'"

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.