Went into the Army after graduation, came home and settled in San Lorenzo for a short time,then moved to Walnut Creek.While living in Walnut Creek,bought a Cattle Ranch from Bing Crosby in Elko Nv and came back to Walnut Creek on weekends. After a few years opened a Restaurant in Clayton and stayed with that for 30 years.Got into a bad wreak and could not work the hours it took to do a good job,so thought I would retire,that was only good for 7 weeks,during this time with the restaurant had several class reunions.
Out of boredom took a boat trip for 2 weeks,then came home and drove cross country for 3 weeks. On my return home got a job as a salesman, and here I am.
Second Marriage: Dottie Prevost Jawad: As a family, we all adored Dottie. Like my mother, Dottie valued friends and family.
It was after the divorce of my father and Dottie that all huge gatherings of family and friends came to an end.
A lot was lost when my father's first two marriages failed.
Third Marriage: Cost my father everything he cared about. One by one, family members and friends walked away from my father not because we did not love him, but because this third wife was so intolerable--the exact opposte of my mother and Dottie.
My father only married for the third time due to lonliness and depression. The Pioneer Inn closed and Dottie divorced him. He was at his lowest point, and often in situations like that, the best decisions are not made, and it was unfortunate that my father realized this a little too late.
A few months before his death, my father said how much he missed big family gatherings, and I reminded him that he had all that before his third marriage. Since my father's memory was affected by a car accident, I reminded him about how much fun we had and how many people were always at the table when he was married to my mother and Dottie.
My words brought back the memories, and it was then that he realized what had been lost, and it saddened him.
Information that I found that seems to explain how Dad acquired the 7J brand. Since Dad bought the Elko ranch once owned by Bing Crosby, a ranch once owned by Jube Wright who had 7J Livestock, it makes sense that this is how Dad came to have the 7J brand. Once Jude Wright no longer owned the rights to 7J (if in fact Dad knew about it at that time), then it makes sense that Dad wanted since 7J stood for the 7 Jawads.On January 18, 1943, Mr. Crosby arranged "to buy a 3,500 acre ranch east of Elko, Nevada on Humboldt River (the old Jube Wright ranch, the 7J Livestock Co.)"
I also found a picture of the main stree of Elko during this period.
El Capitan Club, Hunter Theater (both in what is now the Commercial parking lot). Next is the Commercial Hotel and Casino.
John M Jawad
Phone: (925) 672-3878
Location: Clayton, CA 94517
Greg Swaffar president, Summit Engineering, Inc.
By JENNIFER HUFFMANRegister Business Writer | Posted: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 12:00 am
Each Wednesday, the Napa Valley Register’s Business Focus asks “10 Questions” of a local entrepreneur or businessperson. Readers are welcome to suggest business people to be profiled.
Greg Swaffar traces the beginning of his career at Summit Engineering to one lucky phone call.
After graduating from the Un iversity of California at Davis and four years at the bridge department at Caltrans, he saw an ad for a job with Summit Engineering in Santa Rosa.
“I called, and the woman who answered the phone was someone who worked with me at Caltrans,” Swaffar said. The coincidence helped Swaffar get his foot in the door.
Seventeen years later, he’s president of the company. The business recently opened a second office in Napa.
Swaffar splits his time between Summit’s Santa Rosa and Napa offices, commuting from his home in Calistoga.
Which three people would you most like to have dinner with?
My maternal grandfather, an amazing immigrant from Sweden.
Gandhi.
Lou Reed, the Godfather of punk rock.
What job would you like to try/not try?
Try: Construction superintendent. These guys have one of the most demanding jobs I could imagine. They have many interests to balance: owner, architect, engineer, trades people, county inspector — all while getting something complicated built.
Not try: Any job that became routine over time. I get bored easily.
What was your first job?
Dishwasher at an old-fashioned family-owned restaurant called the John Jawad Pioneer Inn in Clayton.
I learned most of my important lessons about work at that job: service, quality, humility, hard work, respect for the guy at the bottom and most important — taking care of the wait staff to help them look good.
How did you get into this business?
My high school physics teacher said I was good at math and science and that is what engineers do. I started at UC Davis without any real idea of what civil engineering was all about and learned as I went. I almost bailed out of engineering in college and studied enology. So, when the chance to work on designing wineries came up, I couldn’t resist. It is nice to be a part of the wine business after all. Today, over half of our work is in the wine business. We’re kind of known as the winery engineers.
What’s on your to-do list?
Get my private pilot’s license this fall, and use my airplane to explore new out-of-the-way places with my best friend and wife, Megan. The plane in the photo is a Cessna 172, I’m training in it to get my license.
More travel, including India and the Himalayas, and go back and visit Africa a second time (I climbed Kilimanjaro with my son a few years ago).
Enjoy some down time with my two adult sons.
Read more really good fiction.
Whom do you most admire in the business world?
Business guru Peter Drucker for his thinking about business and perhaps the Jack Welch (former Chairman and CEO of GE) type for the doing of it.
I really admire all the business leaders that stick to their principles when there are a lot of pressures not to.
What’s something people might be surprised to know about you?
As a teenager, I dressed up in traditional Swedish clothes and performed traditional dancing and folk songs. After that experience, I find it almost impossible to be embarrassed about anything.
What is your favorite charity?
NAMI — National Alliance on Mental Illness. It is time for our society to get over the stigma of mental illness and make the same kind of investment in mental illnesses that we make in other diseases.
I also love the Boy Scouts. I have really enjoyed serving as a Cubmaster, Scoutmaster and being involved in the outdoor program for many years.
What was your childhood ambition?
Demolition expert. I started with a chemistry set, and graduated to firecrackers and cherry bombs. My friends and I learned to propel empty tin cans 50 feet or so in the air, predictably.
What other business person(s) would you like to see featured in “10 Questions?”
Tony Knickerbocker of Knickerbockers’ Catering in St. Helena.
Clive Richardson of Calistoga Roastery in Calistoga.
Bill Maudru of Cello & Maudru Construction Company in Napa.
If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
Ionian Basin in the High Sierra at an unnamed lake, fly rod in hand, fishing for golden trout. The fall is the best season in the mountains.
What’s the worst job you ever had?
Bridge design engineer for Caltrans. I could not imagine a future for myself inside that bureaucracy, but designing a highway bridge that I can drive over after it is built is so cool.
What’s one thing Napa could do to help local business?
Maintain the exceptional quality of life for residents so that we can attract the top talent that we need to compete in the Northern California regional economy.
What’s the most significant project you’ve been involved with in your career?
One of the most satisfying projects I have worked on is managing the design and construction of Mumm Napa Valley back in the early 90s. I learned so much, and the facility still looks nice and functions well. Not the biggest, but one of the first wineries where I was involved as a project manager and really helped deliver a project.
What is one thing you hope to accomplish in your lifetime that you haven’t yet?
At work, I would like to be able to encourage a dozen or so young engineers to become ethical and successful business leaders. At home, I hope to someday fully appreciate all of the gifts that I have been given in this life.
If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
I would like for all engineers and engineering firms to focus on improving our level of professionalism which will lead to an improved public perception of the engineering profession.
What’s your favorite gift to give?
I love to surprise people with something unexpected. If I can’t think of anything, I default to candy because I love sweets too.
What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
Making the transition from a small firm driven by a founder to a larger more established firm without losing that family feel, level of commitment to our clients and sense of connection that is so important to me.
I can’t live without: Having a few Border Collies. Pretty hard to take things too seriously when you have dogs grinning back at you. They are wrapped tighter than I could ever be.
Exactly two weeks after his stoke, Bonnie wanted to take him off the life support and was mad when the those who loved him would not agree. In fact, his nurse did not agree and proved that my father could respond to commands.
He would likely be alive today if Bonnie had not ended his life due to greed.
His so-callled friends Peter Hellman and Donna Mahoney helped to justify Bonnie's actions.
To be clear, my father and I had numerous phone conversations and had Bonnie not ended his life on Monday, he had an appointment with an attorney the following day. He planned to file for a divorce. Since Bonnie seldom went to the hospital, my father told me that he had 24/7 to think, and as he said, he had more clarity after his stroke than in the previous two years due to his car accident.
Former Resident of Clayton John Jawad, long time restaurateur in Contra Costa County, passed away on January 17, 2011 at the age of 84 in Las Vegas, NV. Born in Oakland, CA, John was one of 7 children of the late Abdul Hamid and Warda Jawad. He is survived by David; his 5 children John Jr. ("Skip"), Connie, Victoria, Deborah and Michelle; and 20 grandchildren and 20 great-grand-children. As a youth he caught batting practice for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. He was even invited to tryout with the then Brooklyn Dodgers, but when they found out that he was only 17, they promptly handed him his train ticket home. He was a genuine cowboy. He knew every hill and valley of C-C County because at one time or another he herded cattle over or through them all. In 1979 John won rodeo's coveted Stock Horse Championship at the Cow Palace; it was hard not to miss that big silver belt buckle trophy he always wore. John was a WWIIArmy veteran. After his discharge he embarked on what was to be a long and distinguished career in the restaurant business. In 1961 he bought the Pioneer Inn in Clayton, renaming it John Jawad's Pioneer Inn. He was its proprietor for 30 memorable years, greeting his customers and serving up the legendary prime rib and steaks. A near fatal car accident in 1989 was the catalysis for his retirement and so the restaurant, long a friendly gathering place for county residents, was closed in 1990. He was an avid golfer, but for him retirement was not all it was cracked up to be. Friends encouraged him to put his people friendly skills to a new use: Thus began a new career as a sales representative in the title insurance business. His other credentials included: 8 years the Branding Inspector of C-C County; member, City of Clayton Planning Commission; appointed by Gov. Ronald Regan to the C-C County Fair Board, serving two 4-year terms; Volunteer at Mt. Diablo and John Muir Hospitals lending his support to heart surgery patients. John's affable smile, keen wit and quiet, familiar laugh will be greatly missed by all those who ever came in contact with him. John Jawad was a true icon of Contra Costa County.