Pub. 2 2019-2020 Issue 3

8 R obert H. Garff, like his father Ken Garff, believed in listening. The company website for the Ken Garff Automotive Group has a page specifically calledWe Hear You. The title is emphasized by the image of an ear on the “About Us” page. As the website explains, all businesses are about people. Although the Ken Garff dealership does sell and service cars, its relationships with employees and customers are what the company has focused on. Listening to people, and building trust- based relationships, and hard work are what made the Ken Garff Automotive Group a success. The company was founded by Ken Garff in 1932. That wasn’t a great time to start a business; it was during the Great Depression, which began in October 1929, hit its lowest point in 1933, and ended in 1939 when World War II began. Despite that difficult beginning, however, the company is currently ranked nationally as one of the top 10 automotive companies in the U.S. Utah has more than 20 Garff dealerships, and there are more than 50 Garff dealerships in six states: California, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, Texas and Utah. There’s one thing you won’t ever see at a Garff dealership: huge inflatable gorillas. Instead of focusing on making people do a double-take when they see the lot, the Garff dealerships have chosen to focus instead on creating and maintaining excellent relationships with people. Bob built an excellent educational foundation for his work in the dealerships. He earned a B.S. in accounting and followed that up with an MBA, both from the University of Utah. He succeeded Ken as CEO of the group when Ken retired and was succeeded in turn by his son John Garff. Bob was chairman of the board of Garff Enterprises until his death. During his career, the company became almost 10 times larger than it had been when he began working. In addition to being a successful businessman, Bob and his wife Kathi were determined to strengthen the community. They created the Success in Education Foundation and also started a program called the Keys to Success. Bob helped pay for an executive education building that is part of the David Eccles School of Business, and also contributed to a Ken Garff Performance Zone at Rice- Eccles Stadium that was initially scheduled to be ready for the 2021 season. That project has been on hold since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while everyone figures out how to navigate the current logistics, but the intent is to build it as soon as it is reasonable. Megan Maybee, the director of internal communication at the Ken Garff Automotive group, only worked with Bob for a year before his passing. Still, his death left her feeling as though she had lost a family member because of the way he treated her during that year. “He was an amazing human being who treated everyone well regardless of how long he knew them,” she said. “He genuinely loved and cared about people, appreciated input and was supportive.” Dana Geddes, director of employee experience at the Ken Garff Automotive group, workedwith Bob for a large part of her career, and she agrees withMegan’s assessment. “I have never met anybody who genuinely cared about people the way Bob did,” she said. “He was always asking about how you were doing or how your family was doing. For example, my father died a couple of years ago. Bob calledme to give his condolences and make sure I was doing OK. His sympathy, and the knowledge he was thinking about me, meant a lot. After Hurricane Harvey, Bob said that the company had to take care of people. The company paid to have more than 20 homes rebuilt for employees and gavemoney to the people who were affected to help them recover. He always took care of his employees.” (Hurricane Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane in In Tribute: Rob ert H. Garff (Sept. 15, 1942-March 29, 2020)