Police Chief, Auto Dealers, Marketing Innovator Honored

By Lookout Staff

Nov. 17 -- Police Chief James T. Butts, Jr.; the Rehwald family, which owns one of the country's oldest Mercedes-Benz dealers, and Joe Phelps, an innovator of integrated marketing communications, were honored for their community service at separate events this weekend.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire (BBBSGLAIE) honored the Rehwald family, owners of Santa Monica's W.I. Simonson Mercedes-Benz, for their longtime service to the community at the Rising Stars Gala Friday at the Century Plaza Hotel.

Judy Rehwald Richards, Francie Rehwald and Bill Rehwald -- the grandchildren of the dealership's founder William I. Simonson -- have long supported a wide range of community organizations.

They include The American Heart Association (for which they received the 2002 Women’s Legacy Family of the Year), Project Angel Food, The Venice Family Clinic, Santa Monica/UCLA Hospital, Santa Monica YMCA & YWCA and the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John’s Health Center.

The Rehwalds also are supporters of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Meals on Wheels, the Human Rights Campaign, Santa Monica High School, the Santa Monica Symphony and the Santa Monica Historical Society and host an annual Red Cross blood drive.

"Not only are they outstanding business leaders, but they are community minded citizens who are most deserving of this great honor," said Steve Soboroff, president of Playa Vista.

One of the largest auto dealerships in Southern California, W.I. Simonson has been in the family for three generations, a rarity in the automobile business. The Rehwalds’ mother, Mary Simonson Rehwald, was one of the first female Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S., serving as CEO and president of the company from 1976 until her death in 2002.

The Los Angeles Business Journal recently named the dealership -- which is the oldest Mercedes-Benz dealer in Southern California -- as the largest women-owned business in Los Angeles County, based on 2002 revenues.

Other honorees at the Rising Stars Gala were Andy Garcia, Serena Williams, Hillary Duff, Verna Harrah, Jose Navarro and Pam Dawber.

Also on Friday night, the California Heritage Museum honored Butts and Phelps at its 16th Annual Heritage Award Dinner.

Butts, who took over the Santa Monica Police Department in 1991, was recognized for heading an organization that embraces "the effective concepts of Community-based policing." Since taking over the department, serious crime has dropped to its lowest level in more than three decades.

A member of numerous professional and community organizations, Butts is past president of the Peace Officers Association of Los Angeles County. Last year, he received a Commendation from former California Governor Gray Davis and the Achiever's Tribute Award from the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

Phelps, CEO of the Phelps Group, was honored for helping change marketing communications by "abolishing agency departments and organizing the agency's specialists around their clients in cross-functional, self-directional teams.

Phelps, who founded his company in 1981 after working as an account manager, and earlier as a musician and recording engineer, is a past president of the California heritage Museum and currently serves on its advisory board.