Ken Garff

Kendall Day "Ken" Garff (July 18, 1906 – March 14, 1997) was a Utah businessman who owned several automobile dealerships along the Wasatch Front.

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 B.A. 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 cars and trucks in 1937, and Oldsmobile in 1946.

Garff's son, Robert H. Garff, was his successor in running the company.

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 dealer for some time.

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