Rufus “Bud” Reitzel Jr., founder and former chairmen of Asset Acceptance Capital Corp., an ACA International member agency in Warren, Mich., passed away on Oct. 11, 2012. He was 78.
Born in Mt. Clemens, Mich., Reitzel attended Michigan State University and graduated from Wayne State University. He served his country in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Ulm, Germany.
Reitzel used his experience in the finance division of the Army to open Troy Finance in 1960. In 1962 he founded Lee Acceptance Co., an accounts receivable management company known today as Asset Acceptance and celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Reitzel took Asset Acceptance public in 2004. He retired from his position as chairman and as a member of the board of directors in February 2006.
A pioneer of the debt purchasing industry, Reitzel was a founding member of the American Asset Buyers Association, which later became ACA’s Asset Buyers Division. He served on the ABD Committee and was awarded honorary ACA membership in 2007. Reitzel was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001.
He was preceded in death by daughter Heather Lee Reitzel. He is survived by wife Barbara; sister Joan (Leo) Parnagian; children Lisa (Nathaniel) Bradley, James (Kathleen) Reitzel, Stacy James, and Tracey (Darren) Brunner; grandchildren Nathaniel Bradley, Quinn (Arthur) Getz, Chandler James, Ryelynn and Marla Brunner; great-grandchildren Henry and Lily Getz; stepchildren Tonya and Anne Cook; and step-grandchildren Jaclyn and Holly Buckley and Sara and Jacob Miller.