Fittingly, a car financed their first store. The Detroit-area chain has been cruising ever since. Although Tapper’s Diamonds & Fine Jewelry is used to dealing in gold and platinum, it was another hunk of metal—Howard Tapper’s car—that put them in business 35 years ago. After working in the stockrooms and sales floors of jewelry stores for a decade, Howard opened his first location with the cash from selling his family’s wheels.After brother ­Steven came on, ­Tapper’s kept expanding, settling on three metro Detroit stores: West Bloomfield, Novi, and Troy. Now with ­Howard’s son Mark and daughter Marla, the ­family business is in full bloom. “A tree grows stronger each year,” says Howard. “Our roots grow deeper in the ­community, and the combination of the two gives us stability and beauty.”On Giving BackHoward: In 2011, we participated in a program with Detr