Kendall Day Garff (July 18, 1906 – March 14, 1997) was a Utah businessman who owned several

automobile dealership A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and service (motor vehic ...

s along the Wasatch Front.

Biography

Garff was born in Draper, Utah. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), for which he served as a missionary in Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1926 to 1928. He graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in Social and Behavioral Science in 1932. Garff married Marjorie Heiner in 1932 in the Salt Lake Temple and they had three children. Marjorie was ill for many years and died in 1976. Garff remarried Betty June Morgan in 1977. Before selling cars, Garff worked as a Shell service station attendant in Salt Lake City, Utah. After an explosion, the station closed for reconstruction and Garff began selling used cars to support himself and founded his company in 1932. He would buy cars in Chicago and bring them back to sell in Salt Lake. In the 1940s, he opened dealerships to sell new cars, starting with

Studebaker Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...

cars and trucks in 1937, and Oldsmobile in 1946. Garff's son,

Robert H. Garff Robert Heiner Garff (September 15, 1942 – March 29, 2020) was an American businessman and politician who served as chair of the Ken Garff Automotive Group. He also served as the speaker of the Utah House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987. H ...

, was his successor in running the company.

Industry and community

Besides his own involvement with Garff Enterprises, Garff's other businesses included the Deseret Livestock Company and Skull Valley Ranches. He served as director of First Security Corporation for 25 years, president of Fidelity American Life Insurance Co., and director of Detroiter Mobile Homes, the world's largest

mobile home A mobile home (also known as a house trailer, park home, trailer, or trailer home) is a prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to site (either by being towed or on a trailer). Us ...

dealer for some time. Garff was active in community and civic service, including as president of the

Utah Automobile Dealers Association Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its w ...

, executive director of the Boy Scouts of America national board, chairman of the Utah Republican Party for two decades, YMCA board of directors, Brigham Young University Achievement Council, and the University of Utah's National Advisory Council, National Board of Advisors, and Business School Advisory Committee. In 1978, he established a $500,000 chair at the University of Utah's Graduate College of Business, which later named a wing of its facilities the Kendall D. Garff Building in his honor. Garff received various honors for his accomplishments and activities. The University of Utah awarded him the School of Business Outstanding Achievement Award in 1961, the Emeritus Award in 1972, the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1979, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in 1989. He was also inducted into the

Beehive Hall of Fame A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

in 1996 and received the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America. Garff was an Honorary Colonel in the

Utah National Guard The Utah National Guard consists of the: * Utah Army National Guard **19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) **65th Field Artillery Brigade **85th WMD CST **97th Troop Command **115th Engineer Group (CBT) **204th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade **211th ...

and for 12 years was Honorary Consul for the

Federal Republic of West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Dealership conglomerate

The Ken Garff Automotive Group is a large car dealership conglomerate. The company, or one of its dealerships, according to a January 2004 survey conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, was the second-most mentioned car dealership by Utahns when asked to name a car dealer after

Larry H. Miller Dealerships Larry H. Miller (April 26, 1944 – February 20, 2009) was an American businessman. He owned the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team. Miller and his companies (LHM Group) also ...

. The company is currently associated with 26 car dealerships in Utah. Kendall's grandson, John Garff, is currently the president of the company.

References

External links

Ken Garff Automotive Group official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garff, Ken 1906 births 1997 deaths Latter Day Saints from Utah Mormon missionaries in Northern Ireland American Mormon missionaries in the United Kingdom People from Draper, Utah American automobile salespeople Businesspeople from Salt Lake City People in the automobile industry State political party chairs of Utah Utah Republicans University of Utah alumni 20th-century Mormon missionaries 20th-century American businesspeople