After loss of husband to COVID-19, Katharine Garff takes the helm

Katharine Garff first thought her husband of nearly 55 years had the flu when he spiked a high fever in March while they visited their Rancho Mirage, Calif., vacation home.

But the coronavirus soon became reality for Katharine and Robert Garff, chairman of Ken Garff Automotive Group, one of the largest dealership groups in the country.

"Bob got it first, and then I got it a few days later. And then we both looked at each other and said, 'This is not normal,' " Katharine Garff told Automotive News. "So we got in the car, came back to Utah, on the way talked to our doctors [and] were tested the moment we arrived."

Their COVID-19 tests were positive, and they self-isolated. Each lost their sense of taste, but other symptoms varied, with Katharine experiencing fevers, a dry cough and headaches.
After 10 days, Robert seemed to improve but developed a cough. Katharine seemed to get worse, so they headed to the hospital — where Robert was admitted and she was sent home.

Robert's illness then progressed rapidly. Just five days later, on March 29, Katharine lost her life partner. He was 77.

"It was very difficult. It was very quick.  ... It was not expected," Katharine recalled. "I thought he'd come right home."

Still grieving and recovering from the virus herself, Katharine, the couple's children and their families said goodbye to Robert in a private graveside service at which they wore masks.

For the close-knit Garffs, losing the family patriarch to the pandemic that had paralyzed the country was a tough blow. Son John Garff, CEO of parent company Ken Garff Enterprises Inc., struggled with the loss even as he faced shepherding the dealership group, with more than $4.5 billion in annual revenue, through the industry's biggest crisis in more than a decade. His dad's business discipline ended up helping with that challenge.

"We had ... daily discussions with our management team. And when he got hospitalized, I listened in on those calls, but the business ran just the way he planned it. And it just went on," John said. "And the team of great people that we have ran the business through that time. While I listened in and kept my finger on the pulse of it, I was able to focus on my parents, my dad and my family."

At the height of the crisis, some of the group's 52 dealerships had to temporarily close because of state and local government orders. But no stores have had to shut down because of virus outbreaks, John said.

The dealership group did lay off some workers, such as 360 employees in March in Michigan, where the governor's shutdown order had prohibited vehicle sales. As orders were eased and business recovered, the retailer brought most of those staffers back. Ken Garff group's current employee count is just more than 96 percent of its pre-COVID-19 level, John said, and filling its 100-plus job openings "will nearly close that gap."

The company secured Paycheck Protection Program funding and cut back significantly on advertising to curb costs.

The family's long-held succession plan called for John Garff to eventually assume the chairman role. But he instead asked his mother to take the position.

"Within a week of his passing, I just had a very strong personal impression that my mom, that should be her role," he said. "I talked to my brother about it. He was ecstatic."

Katharine, 78, was surprised by the request from John and her other son, Matthew Garff, Garff Enterprises' vice president.
"Of course I was reluctant," she said, adding that her sons were persistent and told her they sought her wisdom, input, direction and advice.

"She's been connected to this business, our family business, for decades, and just because she had been leading from behind doesn't mean she's not a leader," John said.

In June, Katharine, who has fully recovered from the virus, became chairman of Ken Garff Enterprises and Ken Garff Automotive Group — just the third person to chair the Salt Lake City dealership empire that now spans six states and is ranked as the 10th largest U.S. dealership group by Automotive News, with 59,305 new-vehicle retail sales in 2019.

The companies are named for Robert's father, Ken Garff, who started the company in 1932. Garff Enterprises also operates a slew of other businesses, from ranching and real estate to an insurance company and a subprime auto lending business.

John Garff, 52, said he jokingly calls his mother "Madam Chair."

"It's a natural thing for her to take that role and that voice, that community face, the philanthropic voice, the employee voice, the empathic voice," John said. "She has been the heart and soul, and she will continue to be the heart and soul of our company."

While Katharine didn't have a day-to-day role in the dealership group, she was long involved in the background, both as a board member of Garff Enterprises and as an informal adviser to her husband.

"We acted as a couple," she said. "We just did everything together. We were a team."
When Robert was chairman, he went to work every day because "he just loved being with his boys," Katharine said. She now goes to the office at least once a week and talks to the team almost daily by phone.

"I don't think I will change anything. But the company will never be status quo. ... It will always be adapting. It will always be growing, hopefully in the right direction," she said. "We buy maybe one or two dealerships a year. We want to have steady, deliberate growth."

During the pandemic, Ken Garff Automotive accelerated its digital strategy, making "significant investments of time and resources to adapt to the online and home-delivery demand for sales and service," John wrote in an email to Automotive News.

Katharine said her focus largely will remain on philanthropic efforts, many centered on education. Ken Garff Automotive this spring launched the We're Hear For You initiative — a play on its We Hear You tag line — in which dealership employees have volunteered for more than 100 projects, such as providing groceries to older people or taking lunch to hospital workers.

"We've turned the devastation of COVID and difficulties of COVID ... into an opportunity to give back to the community and to really let our employees shine," she said.

The efforts also proved personally healing.

"It's really been helpful for me as I've been trying to get over the loss of my husband to see the inspirational things that the company has been doing," she said. "It's all about building people."

That's what her husband — a community leader who headed the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and a former speaker of the Utah House of Representatives — did without ego, she said, adding that he was a "wonderful listener" who gave "sage advice."

Robert Garff bought his brother's and sister's stakes in business in the 1990s, and he and Katharine over time gifted ownership to their five children. Today, John is majority owner of the Garff holdings, while Matthew Garff and Brett Hopkins, CEO of the automotive group, have minority positions. John and Matthew bought out their three sisters seven or eight years ago, John said.

The company is now transitioning to the fourth generation. Four of John's five children and Matthew's four children have worked in some capacity in the business.

John called his ownership stake his parents' heritage.

"We feel a tremendous responsibility to do good things with that gift, not only personally, but philanthropically and with providing opportunities to our employees," he said.

In 2004, Robert and Katharine founded the Keys to Success program, an incentive-based program to help Utah high school students academically.

Katharine also is a board member of the Robert H. and Katharine B. Garff Foundation and has been involved in many education and community endeavors.

John Garff said his parents believed they contracted the coronavirus from a second cousin, who likely picked it up on an airplane. That cousin, Blair Garff, died a few weeks after Robert, dealing another blow to the family.

Robert's death came as a shock, as he'd been in great health and "golfed 18 holes and [completed a] 20-mile bike ride the day that he first got his first symptom," John said.

John recalled how he and his father would discuss all major decisions facing the company. Now his mother will be the one guiding — and challenging — him.

"My dad was my 35-year business partner, my hero, my best friend," John said. "There's not a day ... that he hasn't been in my thoughts. And I'm just grateful to continue his legacy, my grandfather's legacy, and I'm very blessed to be able to live that legacy with my mom."