Some people choose to find solutions to problems across the world from their own home while others choose to fix their own home before the rest of the world.
Johnny Harrison, Vice President and General Manager of Lexus of Glendale, has performed countless good deeds for our society/ When he believes students need assistance, he chooses to provide them with what they need directly, to make sure they have the necessary resources to accomplish their tasks.
Growing up in Texas, Harrison was handed a key to his new car by his father when he was 16, who told him to find a way to pay for gas and maintenance expenses, sealing Harrison’s 30-year career in the car industry.
Harrison’s brother, who worked as a technician at a Chevrolet dealership, knew about a job available as a service driver for corvettes, a job that required Harrison getting paid for driving top of the line cars. However, because the job was unavailable, he ended up hauling trash instead. Though it was not exactly the dream job he had in mind, Harrison accepted the position for a couple of years as he worked his way through junior college.
Despite his humble beginnings in the industry, Harrison gradually learned all the aspects of the dealership business. When Harrison’s manager at the Chevrolet dealership left to work as a manager for Honda, Harrison went to work as his assistant manager. At the dealership, he met his future business partner, Lute Riley, who was the owner of Honda dealership at the time. According to Harrison, Riley trusted him to get the job done and gave all his managers the independence to do whatever they needed to do to accomplish their tasks without following them every step of the way. Harrison and Riley have been working together for29 years, and with Riley’s support and trust, Harrison believes he grew a great deal both in life and in the industry.
In 1997, when Riley sold the Honda store, Harrison was given the choice to stay in Honda and work for the new owners, or move along with Riley to his Lexus dealership in Glendale, which he opened in 1990. After deciding on the latter, Harrison moved to California and was given once again the chance to run his own show as manager. In 2000, after he and Riley established relations as business partners, Harrison was promoted to Vice President, in addition to maintaining his role as General Manager.
Although Harrison has achieved prestige at the dealership, he does not care for “titles” and “positions;” however, he does want to be the “absolute best” at whatever it is that he does. Harrison plans on expanding the business to make sure they are “the best on the planet.”
Despite his ample goals, Harrison believes it is vital to give back to the people he “shares a home with” and help his business grow, which is why he purchased iPods and new equipment for Hoover’s marching band, computer drives for Cerritos Elementary School, and provided funding for Glendale High School’s co-ed dance team.
A member of his high school marching band, he remembers the delight and pride he and the other members felt when they had new hats to perform with. He believes this helped him realize the importance of valuing one’s community and finds that when students have the support of someone within their community, they enhance their performance and tend to value their home and community later on in their lives.
Danielle Alberto (’11), who has been in the marching band since her freshman year, believes the new uniforms, now purple instead of white, has made the band more confident, which is really helpful during competitions.
“It is very motivational because we are always under the impression that nobody really appreciates the marching band,” Alberto said.
Likewise, Harrison recalls how groups like the marching band were often overlooked and under-funded when he went to school, because football and other heavy-duty sports took up most of the budget. Directly providing the needs of a certain club or class ensures that students who participate in these activities are provided with the materials they need to perform their absolute best.
After speaking with Allen Au (’11), Business Manager and Photo Editor of the school’s newspaper, Harrison grew curious as to why Au was seeking people who would want to advertise in a high school paper. After Au told him that the journalism team was raising money for new computers and a camera, Harrison offered to purchase the new equipment in addition to advertising in the paper under the condition that the paper produces at its absolute best.
“Journalism is a very fast-paced business class,” Yul Kim, editor-in-chief of the school’s paper said. “We can use the new computers to work faster and stronger to produce a higher caliber paper for our school.”
Harrison also provided Cerritos Elementary School with new computers because he finds it vital for students to keep up with the changing world around them. The computers at the elementary school were very “out-of-date”, something students should not have to accustom themselves with when there is far more advanced material they can work with.
During the swine flu epidemic, Harrison provided hand sanitizers for the entire Glendale district because he wanted parents to send their children to school without the fear that their children might be infected. Such anxieties, according to Harrison, could have caused students to miss out on their education.
“Imagine opening up the newspaper and reading about students in Glendale who died after catching the virus in school,” he said. “If we are capable of preventing such cases, it is our duty to do so. Students shouldn’t be kept home out of fear of catching an illness at their school.”
Harrison , along with several others, were recognized by the Neighborhood Services and the Committee for a Clean and Beautiful Glendale in 2007 after his financial donations urged hundreds of volunteers to paint out 80,000 square feet of graffiti and clean up litter from 22 miles of streets.
Shannon McGrath, a Guest Relations Manger who has worked with Harrison for the past ten years, has helped manage and run many of the charities they fund. McGrath describes Harrison as the kind of man that will offer ten brands of tissues to someone when they sneeze.
What McGrath admires most about Harrison is that he does not like talking about good deeds, he just likes doing them.
“Sometimes I wish he takes more credit for what he does,” she said. “But he does not do what he does for publicity. He does it because he realizes that it is best for our community.”
Both Harrison and McGrath believe that by providing the children in their community with support, they can learn and grow to do the same for their community in the future.
“If everyone cleaned their own front porch, the entire world would be clean,” McGrath said.
