Challenges never define you. How you react to them and deal with them often does.
Cheri Fleming and her husband, Don, had the entrepreneurial spirit. Cheri grew up in Parma Heights, Ohio, and moved to Southern California’s Santa Clarita Valley after graduating from Ohio University. She decided to create a tanning salon. She met Don, a tanning salon equipment supplier who lived in Austin, Texas, at that time, during a trip to Texas to buy equipment. He helped her open her salon in upscale Woodland Hills. With advice and help from Don (whose visits from Texas became increasingly more frequent), the salon was an immediate success: nearby residents and stars soon became customers. Don moved to California in 1984 with his two children, Brian and Kymba. The two married and settled in the San Fernando Valley.
Cheri and Don owned and managed several auto dealerships in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They purchased Valencia Acura in 1997. On a national level, it ranked last in sales and customer satisfaction. They accepted and loved the challenge of turning the dealership around. As they focused on improving the two main problem areas, the dealership became a top performer.
At Valencia Acura, Cheri and Don focused on improving customer loyalty and sales, and it became a top dealership in those areas. Their success was caused in part by Cheri’s involvement in community service, philanthropy and business leadership. She knew community service was important. Cheri gained a reputation for being one of the most hard-working, courteous and effervescent women in the valley. She took an interest in many causes and mentored her executive assistant, Stephanie Gurne; Kim Kurowski, a business owner and Soroptimist president; and others. A partial list of organizations that benefitted from her interest includes the following:
- American Cancer Society
- Boys & Girls Club of SCV
- Habitat for Humanity
- SCV Chamber of Commerce
- Soroptimist
- The Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Foundation, Child and Family Center
She held many leadership positions:
- Chair, the 2006 Arthritis Foundation Walk
- Co-chair, the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Boys & Girls Club Auction
- Director and chair elect, the American Cancer Society Unit Council; co-chair, 2004 and 2005 “Relay for Life”
- Director and chair, Child and Family Center Governing Board
- Director and chair, Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Health Foundation
- Director, chair and vice chair, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital
- Director, Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealer Association
- Director, The Roar Foundation Advisory Board
- Member and past president, Soroptimist International Camino Real Region
- Vice president, the Sheila R. Veloz Breast Imaging Center Advisory Board
Cheri Fleming was such an integral part of the community’s fabric, and her impact woven into so many lives. Her kindness, optimism, and enthusiasm inspired everyone around her. Cheri’s inspirational leadership, signature smile, and infinite passion for doing good will forever be missed.
As the list above makes obvious, Cheri and Don were longtime supporters of Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. They served on committees and its hospital and foundation boards. Cheri believed in its mission to provide quality health care to its community. She helped raise millions of dollars so the hospital could expand specialized care and critical life-saving services, and when she needed medical care herself in 2016 as a first-time patient, that’s where she went.
Her work with the Soroptimists also deserves additional comment. Cheri wanted to help girls and women. She was a member of the Soroptimist international chapter in the Santa Clarita Valley for more than 20 years. The organization includes 19 countries and has over 30,0000 members, and along with many other positions within the organization, she served as its president. She also participated in the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women.
Cheri combined kindness and business acumen. She defined her success personally as helping others succeed, and she empowered others by including and acknowledging their contributions. Joan Aschoff, Child & Family Center’s president and CEO, said Cheri was “an absolute pleasure to work with.” Meanwhile, Don worked with the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation and helped make the city more business-friendly.
Their efforts at Valencia Acura and within the community brought them recognition and awards for their accomplishments.
- Don and Cheri were named the 2004 “Man of the Year” and “Woman of the Year” for Santa Clarita Valley. This award was the second time in 40 years that a husband and wife shared the same honor for the same year.
- The American International Automobile Dealers Association and Newsweek magazine named her the “Dealer of the Year” in 2006.
- State Senator George Runner named her the 2007 “Woman of the Year.”
- The Business Journal named her the 2008 “Woman of the Year.”
- The Boy Scouts of America gave Cheri the 2011 Leader of Character award.
- The Los Angeles County Fifth Supervisorial District and Commission for Women named Cheri “Woman of the Year” in 2012.
- San Fernando Valley Business Journal named her “Volunteer of the Year” in 2017.
- College of the Canyons awarded Cheri and Don with the “Silver Spur” community service award in 2019 for their work on higher education.
- The Business Journal’s Women’s Council gave Cheri their Lifetime Achievement Award. In the Business Journal’s Valley 200 issue, the journal named her one of 20 leaders in their list of the 200 most influential people in the valley. She and the other 20 leaders were identified as icons of influence.
You know, what I think I admired most about her was her ethics. She approached everything with an internal code of ethics that was exemplary. She worked hard. She was dedicated, and here’s an important thing – she knew how to listen. Not many people do. She received letters from all over the world thanking her for her efforts and her leadership. She was the president for Soroptimist International, which is a global organization that provides women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. There are over 30,000 members in nineteen countries, and Cheri visited each chapter. She lived to do good. I have received over three hundred cards since she passed. It’s the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It’s humbling to think that anyone could have that effect on others. And yet, she never bragged. She took our store and created the highest CSI in the country. She had the most contagious effect for excellence – she lived it and inspired it. One of my favorite memories of Cheri came from a very sad event in our town. A couple of years ago, we had a shooting at our high school, Saugus High. You never think it’s going to happen in your neighborhood. When Cheri heard about it, her first reaction was that she had to do something. And within just a few hours, she had organized pizza and hamburgers to be donated to the first responders and the paramedics working so diligently to provide first aid. It was a small thing, but it wasn’t. It was comfort, and these amazing people on the front lines knew that our community was thinking about them and supporting them. Cheri was all about the details. I fell in love with Cheri the first time I saw her. It was like a silver bullet pierced my heart, and suddenly, I was hopelessly in love. She brought so much joy and inspiration to our lives. I miss her. Our family misses her. Our community misses her. She was my guiding light. She was my inspiration. She was my compass.
I worked with Cheri Fleming for years. She was a big supporter of our association. She and her husband, Don, turned around a Valencia automobile dealership, and she went on to become an active civic leader and philanthropist who won numerous awards and honors. She was a doer. She served on our board for years and made such a positive impact in our industry. One of my favorite memories of Cheri involves our automotive technician program. The program offers certificate and degree pathways that range from one semester to two years in length, allowing students to get into the workforce quickly by providing in-depth training with extensive hands-on experiences in all nine ASE certification programs and the State of California Smog Tech Training. Cheri and Don were instrumental in raising funding for the program. However, one year, her dealership sponsored a team of technicians, and she was so involved. She wanted her team to win, and she was their biggest cheerleader. It was touching to see her so engaged with the students. If you asked for help from Cheri, you got it. She did what she said she would do and then some. Don and Cheri were named honorees of the J.D. Power 2019 Dealer of Excellence Program, which recognizes a select number of vehicle dealerships for exceptional customer service. Cheri was also recognized by the American International Automobile Dealers Association as a Dealer of the Year. You know there has been a lot of focus on selling to women and making our women customers feel comfortable with buying a car. Cheri was ahead of her time in regards to that. She catered to women, and they showed up and bought cars. Her management style was inclusive to all of the dealership’s customers, and their dealerships went from last in sales and CSI to one of the top-performing dealerships in the country, which was and is a big deal. Cheri was a visionary. She made everyone comfortable.
Cheri had health challenges during her life. At 28, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She suffered a stroke and had to relearn how to walk.
After suffering a brain aneurism, Cheri died Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, when she was 69. The Fleming family continues to honor her life; they created the Cheri Fleming Legacy Fund at go.soroptimist.org/in-memoriam/cheri-fleming-legacy-fund. Donations support the Soroptimists in their mission to help girls and women around the world.
Cheri once said, “I only hope that I was able to impart a fraction of the wisdom and love to others as they bestowed on me.” She was an accomplished business and civic leader. Her legacy is one of wisdom and love to others, as she hoped it would be.
I served with Cheri Fleming on the GLANCDA board. She was our Treasurer, and in a few years, she would have been our Chairwoman. Cheri was warm, caring, and so intelligent. What stands out, though, was her smile. It instantly put people at ease. You could see the kindness radiating from that smile. I think the word that comes to mind when I think of Cheri would be “compassion.” Oh, and she was a really good car dealer. One of the best. As an industry, we will miss her.
On December 11, 2020, community leader Cheri Fleming was celebrated in a memorial service at Real Life Church in a private family gathering. Services were broadcast internationally, and the Cheri Fleming Legacy Fund established through Soroptimist International of the Americas in her honor.
View the service here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7YfPUCpn0.
