Oct. 7/14 2013; Volume 27/number 12
Kansas City, Mo.—J. R. Harris, better known as “Junior” in the flooring industry, was recently honored as the second recipient of the Chris Davis Award for his numerous contributions to flooring installation. Harris was instrumental in establishing CFI in the Maryland area.
Harris and Pat Fell, who was an employee of the L. Fishman Co., began working with CFI to bring training and certification to Maryland. They established the Delmarva CFI chapter to share installation knowledge with the flooring community.
According to Roland Thompson, Delmarva’s president, “There is no one like Junior. I’ve been with him when he would load up his vehicle with props and supplies and off we went to another training event. No one knows how much money Junior took out of his pocket to finance the trips and purchase food and refreshments for everyone. ‘No’ was never in his vocabulary. It was just, ‘Make it happen.’ He led by doing.”
Harris, once a retailer in the Baltimore area, has always believed good installation begins at the time of the sale, and dealers must get involved with their installers to make a difference. “I knew if the installer going to my customer’s home was not qualified, I’d spend many hours trying to make things right,” Harris noted. “I didn’t like that job, so we were proactive and made certain those who represented our company achieved customer satisfaction.”
The Chris Davis Award is given in memory of the former CEO of the WFCA who passed away in 2012. The award is given to retailers who promote quality installation through their support of CFI. The retailers must also display leadership in achieving goals directly related to the advancement of quality installation.