EVERETT — Buzz Rodland, president of Rodland Toyota-Scion in Everett, is in the running for Time magazine advertising’s auto dealer of the year award.
Rodland was named one of four regional finalists for the award, offered in cooperation with the 17,000-member National Automobile Dealers Association.
A panel of faculty members from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan selects the four finalists, based on business success and on a long-standing commitment to effective community service, Time’s advertising department said in a prepared statement.
Rodland, 60, a graduate of the University of Washington, said he started sweeping floors, pumping gas and washing cars at the dealership at age 13.
He became general manager in 1980 and owner in 1985, after the death of his father. Rodland’s daughter now sells cars at the dealership.
Rodland has worked on a variety of boards and civic causes, including United Way, Rotary, the Everett Arts Commission, the Chamber of Commerce and the Heart Association.
Rodland was a founding board member of the Bank of Everett and has lobbied for business and automobile association causes for decades “to establish a positive partnership that advances legislation supportive of a healthy and fair business environment for consumers and new car and truck dealers,” he said.
Education is also an important issue for Rodland. He runs an annual book drive for Hawthorne Elementary School to supply classrooms with books for kids to take home, and has helped build schools in Guatemala.
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