ViewSource Media Founder and CEO John Harris Dies
Company to continue on course he set earlier in year
We have some news about ViewSource Media founder and CEO John Harris we need to
share.
On March 24, John was admitted to Middletown Regional Hospital with a
respiratory infection, which was subsequently diagnosed as pneumonia. Later in
the week, he was moved to the intensive care unit, where doctors put him on a
ventilator to make breathing easier. Unfortunately, they had trouble regulating
his pulse, and on March 31, he died of heart failure.
We'll miss John, but we intend to keep on running ViewSource the way he
intended. Late last year, we began planning a business direction for 2001 that
included the establishment of a leadership team, which has been in place since
January. We have a staff of dedicated professionals, and we're prepared to see
ViewSource continue to thrive in a way that would make John proud.
The visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, April 4, at the Baker
Stevens Funeral Home, 1500 Manchester Avenue, Middletown, Ohio, 45042.
The funeral will be at 10 a.m., Thursday, April 5, at the same location as the
visitation (see above).
Donations may be sent to the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation, 804 W. Diamond
Avenue, Suite 210, Gaithersburg MD 20878, 800-981-2663,
www.oif.org
- or John's church, Primitive Baptist Church, P.O. Box 17037, Cincinnati 45217,
513-821-7289.
Obituary
John C. Harris
1965-2001
Founder and CEO, ViewSource Media
(Cincinnati, OH -- Apr. 2, 2001) --
John C. Harris, 35, founder and CEO of ViewSource Media, died at Middletown
Regional Hospital Saturday, March 31, of heart failure after a week-long bout
with pneumonia.
Harris’ Cincinnati firm employs 11 people and provides branding, marketing and
eCommerce services for local and national clients, including WGUC-FM
Cincinnati’s Classical Public Radio, Graeter’s Ice Cream, Nationwide Insurance,
Mercy Health Partners and others.
Harris had a congenital bone disorder known as osteogenesis imperfecta, which
caused his bones to break easily. He weighed approximately 40 pounds and used a
motorized wheelchair. Despite his disability, Harris excelled at graphic design
and Web programming.
Before founding ViewSource Media in 1996, Harris was an interactive designer at
HSR Business to Business, a Cincinnati marketing communications firm named Advertising
Age’s
Business Marketing “Agency of the Year” during his tenure.
“His life had an angelic quality,” said Richard A. Segal Jr., chairman and CEO
of HSR Business to Business. “In his presence, our own lives were made richer
and more beautiful. We were privileged to have been his colleague.”
Prior to that, Harris was a graphic designer with advertising agency WBK in
Cincinnati. “John was one of our early computer people, at a time when using
computers for design was still fairly new in ad agencies,” said Barron Krody,
former senior vice president and partner with WBK. He is now retired.
“I hired him and was his supervisor,” Krody continued. “He was a very fast
learner and quickly became one of our best designers. He was a charming person,
so disarming. After spending a few minutes with him, his disability seemed to
go away, and he put everyone at ease.”
Harris was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to the Art Institute of
Cincinnati, formerly known as the ACA College of Design. “If there’s anything
in my professional life that gave me meaning, it was John,” said Marion Allman,
the school’s director. “He never saw any obstacles, and he had an incredible
spirit.” The school will close Thursday in honor of Harris and so those who
knew him can attend the funeral.
Harris’ work earned awards from the American Advertising Federation, Business
Marketing Association, Art Directors Club of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Direct
Marketing Association. Media including The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur’s
Business Start-Ups, Cincinnati magazine and The Cincinnati Enquirer
wrote feature articles on Harris’ success. He was also a finalist in the
Cincinnati Ernst & Young office’s 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year event.
Harris owed a large part of his success to his parents, Wilbur and Nancy
Harris, who provided him encouragement, moral guidance and mobility assistance
throughout his life. His mother took jobs in the front offices at the schools
her son attended, and in some cases she carried him from class to class in
buildings that were not handicapped accessible. She later served as his
business manager at ViewSource Media.
Harris is a graduate of Edgewood High School in Trenton, Ohio. He was born May
1, 1965. He is survived by his parents, Nancy and Wilbur Harris, and his
sister, Julie Ferlay.
The visitation will be 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Baker Stevens Funeral
Home, 1500 Manchester Ave., Middletown, and the funeral will be 10 a.m.
Thursday at the funeral home.
The Harris family requests that any memorials be sent to the Osteogenesis
Imperfecta Foundation in Gaithersburg, Md., 800-981-2663 or
www.oif.org
. Memorials may also be sent to Primitive Baptist Church, P.O. Box 17037,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.
