Automotive News Canada - July 2018 - v2 - 22

* JULY 2018

General manager of supplier Grote Industries Canada hikes
to Everest Base Camp to help fund Markham hospital project
By SARAH STAPLES

MONTREAL CORRESPONDENT

RAD MORRIS MADE AN extraordinary contribution to help raise
$750,000 toward construction
of a new operating room at the
Toronto-area hospital: He joined a
two-week fund-raising trek to the
Mount Everest Base Camp in eastern Nepal.
Morris, who serves on the board of Markham
Stouffville Hospital, said he isn't an outdoorsy guy.
His last camping trip was with his Grade 8 class, in
fact.
So Morris didn't exactly sign on immediately
when asked to join the fundraiser.
"I'd love to tell you that in the first split second
I said yes, but it wasn't something I ever thought I
would do." Morris runs the Canadian subsidiary of
Grote Industries Inc. - a fourth-generation family-run vehicle lighting and systems company based
in Madison, Ind. - and is a member of its international executive team.
"You can't simply show up for a trip like this;
about a year of physical training is involved and the
trip is a long commitment to being away from work
and family, so those were considerations."aThe
uniqueness of the project won him over.
MSH Trek Everest was undertaken by 25 hospital staff and supporters, said Morris, who chairs the
hospital foundation.
The team flew to Nepal's capital, Kathmandu in
April, on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the first
ascent of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Sir
Edmund Hillary in 1953. From there, the trekkers
flew to Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla.

'STEPPING OUT'
A round trip to Base Camp takes about two
weeks, rising steadily through the Himalayas to an
elevation of 5,364 metres (17,598 feet).
"This wasn't just the proverbial once-in-a-lifetime experience," Morris said. "I was focused on the
theme of the importance of stepping out of comfort
zones."

Brad Morris and his teammates celebrate their
arrival at Everest Base Camp on May 1, an
elevation of 5,364 metres (17,598 feet).

P H O T O : S A R A H S TA P L E S

listen to those around you and keep pushing forward, taking great advice, and persevering no matter the obstacles."
"We were truly immersed in the entrepreneurial
spirit that says you do whatever you need to get 'er
done," Morris said.
Obstacles on the way to Base Camp included the ever-present risk of altitude sickness.
Hypothetically, if
someone were to
fly there directly,
insufficient oxygen and air pressure would knock
them unconscious
in minutes, and
kill them within hours. The
multi-day hike is
designed to keep
trekkers alive.
BRAD MORRIS
Morris felt
Grote Industries Canada
physically strong
and didn't experience altitude issues, but he lost significant weight by
the end of the trek. He said he also gained new perspective: fighting an admittedly "intense type-A personality" by sticking to a disciplined regime of diet,
medication and sleep.
On May 1, Morris and his teammates arrived at
Everest Base Camp's collection of yellow tents dotting the glacial moraine. They held a victory lunch
beside the Khumba icefall, an infamous glacier ridden with deadly crevasses.
"Business is like climbing a mountain in some
ways," he recalls. "The reality is you're putting one
foot in front of the other, adapting to the culture of
what's next." - ANC

I'd love to tell you that in
the first split second I said
yes, but it wasn't something
I ever thought I would do.

You could say that theme runs in the family. In
1976, Morris's father, Eric, was a regional sales manager of a successful large firm when he received an
out-of-the-blue call from Grote asking Morris to lead
the company's first foray outside the United States.
"Dad was probably wondering what a 'Grote'
was," Morris said. "It was a leap of logic and courage. He went from a position of comfort to not having a dollar of sales, no office building, customers or
employees. Just a dream and the conviction to see it
through."
By the late 1980s, Eric Morris's wholly owned
subsidiary was Canada's market leader.
Brad Morris joined the payroll at age 13 and
assumed a variety of roles in different departments
- from manufacturing to marketing - before taking over as general manager.

'GET 'ER DONE'
"Dad built a business, and I get the privilege to
run a business. Those are potentially different toolboxes, and I could not necessarily do what he did,
and vice versa, but in partnership and on balance it
made for a better company," he says.
"He's my mentor, my role model and one of my
best friends. He taught me that if you're smart, you
Brad Morris, flanked by legends of Mount Everest
Andrew Lock, left, and Peter Hillary, right, son of
Sir Edmund Hillary. P H O T O : S A R A H S TA P L E S

PEAK
FUND-RAISING

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