Summerfield Johnston Jr. (born August 28, 1932), aka Skey Johnston, is an American businessman and

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

player.Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame
Benjamin Butler
A Passion for Polo: The Johnston Family Legacy
''CitysScope'' He served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of

Coca-Cola Enterprises Coca-Cola Enterprises was a marketer, producer, and distributor of Coca-Cola products. It was formerly the anchor bottler for Western Europe and most of North America. Coca-Cola Enterprises' products included Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, ...

from 1991 to 2001.Coca-Cola Enterprises: Cola-Cola History
The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress Board of Trustees biography
/ref>Local families have Coke connection
''

Chattanooga Free Press The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's majo ...

'', February 26, 2010The Bottleneck At Coca Cola Enterprises
''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'', September 13, 1992Memorial Service Set Tuesday For Cleveland's Skeeter Johnston
''

The Chattanoogan ''The Chattanoogan'' and its website Chattanoogan.com is an online media outlet that concentrates on news from Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is published by John Wilson, previously a staff writer for the ''Chattanooga Free Press The ''Chattanooga ...

'', April 7, 2007Betsy Morris, Patricia Sellers
What Really Happened At Coke Doug Ivester was a demon for information. But he couldn't see what was coming at the showdown in Chicago.
''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

'', January 10, 2000

Early life

Summerfield Johnston Jr. was born in 1932 and grew up on the 4,000-acre Bendabout Farm in McDonald, Bradley County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. His grandfather was James F. Johnston, the founder of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the first Coca-Cola franchisee. His father, Summerfield Johnston Sr., worked for the family business. He graduated from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

, where he played

in 1951.

Career

He joined the board of directors of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in 1959. In 1991, he merged it with Coca-Cola Enterprises. He served as its chairman and CEO from 1991 to 2001. He is a former board member of

SunTrust Banks SunTrust Banks, Inc. was an American bank holding company with SunTrust Bank as its largest subsidiary and assets of US$199 billion as of March 31, 2018. The bank's most direct corporate parent was established in 1891 in Atlanta, where it was h ...

and SunTrust Bank of Chattanooga, N.A.He sits on the board of trustees of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress and the

University of Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...

Foundation.

Polo

Johnston is a

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

polo player. In the 1950s, he organized polo matches on his family farm in McDonald, Tennessee. He later founded the Chattanooga Polo Club, later known as the Bendabout Polo Club. He served as the long-time president of the Gulfstream Polo Club in

Lake Worth, Florida Lake Worth Beach, previously named Lake Worth, is a city in east-central Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, located about north of Miami. The city's name is derived from the body of water along its eastern border known as the Lake Worth ...

. He served as vice president of the

United States Polo Association The United States Polo Association (USPA) is the national governing body for the sport of polo in the United States. Introduction Established in 1890, by David Grubbs the USPA provides resources to over 4,500 individual members and 250 polo club ...

from 1979 to 1989, president from 1980 to 1984 and as chairman from 1984 to 1988, and still sits on its board as a governor-at-large. He owns the Flying H ranch in

Big Horn, Wyoming Big Horn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 198 at the 2000 census and 490 at the 2010 census. Geography Big Horn is on the eastern slope of the Big H ...

, home to the Flying H Polo Club, and the Everglades Polo Club in

Wellington, Florida Wellington is a village just west of West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County and north of Miami. As of 2019, the city had a population of 65,398 according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, making it the most populous village in the state. It is the ...

. In 1982, he was awarded the '' Hugo Dalmar Trophy'' for exemplary sportsmanship. On February 17, 2001, he was inducted into the

Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame The Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization to celebrate the sport of polo.Horace Laffaye, Dennis J. Amato, ''Polo in the United States: A History'', Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 28/ref> Overview It ...

. He is a proponent of the return of polo to the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Personal life

His British-born wife, Gil Johnston, is Vice President of the Polo Training Foundation.Nicole Lever
Gillian Johnston's Passion For Horses Has Never Dwindled
''

The Chronicle of the Horse ''The Chronicle of the Horse'' is an American weekly equestrian magazine.Mary Fishback, ''Northern Virginia's Equestrian Heritage'', Arcadia Publishing, 200/ref> It covers dressage, hunters and jumpers, eventing, foxhunting and steeplechase racin ...

'', January 26, 2005 His late son was

Summerfield Johnston III Summerfield Johnston III, a.k.a. Skeeter Johnston, (1954-2007) was an American businessman and polo player.

, a renowned

player who served as Vice President of Coca-Cola Enterprises. His daughter, Gillian Johnston, is also a polo player and serves as governor-at-large of the United States Polo Association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Summerfield Jr. Living people 1932 births People from Bradley County, Tennessee Businesspeople from Chattanooga, Tennessee University of Virginia alumni American businesspeople Coca-Cola people American polo players University of Tennessee at Chattanooga people