John Strong

Class of 2002

John was born October 17, 1937, in Long Beach, CA. After attending San Ramon High School, in 1964 he graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He and his wife Gayle have five children.

John was a sales representative with the Pillsbury Co. from 1959 to 1961. In 1964, he moved on to handle sales at Kimberly-Clark, joining Mars, Inc. in 1967 as a sales rep and working his way up to regional manager. In 1977, he left Mars to found Strong & Associates, which he served as CEO and President until his retirement in 2000.

His many national and regional Broker Of The Year awards include recognition from Jolly Rancher, Leaf, Heide, Tootsie Roll, Mars, Hershey and Van Melle.