Heinz Prechter

Heinz Prechter (January 19, 1942 – July 6, 2001) a German born entrepreneur who founded the American Sunroof Company (ASC) was an entrepreneur, community leader and philanthropist. He was a close friend and avid fundraiser for the Bush Family.

Born in 1942 in Kleinhöbing, Germany, Prechter began his automotive career at the age of 13 as an apprentice in automotive trim, tool and die making and coach and body building. After completing his studies at the Berufs-Oberschule in Nuremberg, Mr. Prechter furthered his education at Nuremberg's Ohm Polytechnic Engineering School.

During his studies, Prechter gained a wide range of practical experience working for a number of German companies, including Faunwerke (a truck and military equipment supplier), Siemens (an electronics firm), and Deutz (a diesel engine manufacturer).

In 1963, he came to the U.S. as an exchange student. While studying Business Administration and English at San Francisco State College, he began installing sunroofs – then a virtually unknown product in the US.

Fifteen months later, in 1965, Prechter founded the American Sunroof Company (now ASC Incorporated) in Los Angeles. He spent US$764 on tools, a workbench from an old door covered with aluminum and a sewing machine from a junkyard. This one-man enterprise soon became well known for its "custom" sunroofs as well as its creative approach to supporting the development of specialty vehicles for the film industry.

Today, ASC is a supplier of highly engineered and designed roof systems, body systems and other specialty-vehicle systems for the world’s automakers. Now headquartered in Southgate, Michigan, the company employs approximately 1,000 employees at facilities throughout the U.S.

In addition to ASC, Prechter founded Heritage Network Inc., a group of Michigan companies involved in the transportation, hospitality and communications industries. His Heritage Network group included a weekly newspaper chain (one of the largest in the state of Michigan), a real estate development company and a beef cattle business. In early 1997, he created Prechter Holdings, which owned the ASC and Heritage businesses.

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