Remembering Marcia S. Harris (1940-2007)

 

Marcia S. Harris, President and CEO of the Restaurant Association of Maryland, passed away after a short illness on the morning of September 28, 2007 after celebrating her 67th birthday on Monday, September 24th. She proudly headed the largest membership based trade association in the Baltimore region. Harris had been the leader of the organization since 1986.

 

Career milestones at the Association included the establishment of the first self-insured Workers’ Compensation Insurance Company in Maryland and the creation of the Maryland Hospitality Education Foundation. She was a past president of the International Society of Restaurant Association Executives and a founding member of the Women’s Foodservice Forum. She was also a past winner of the Industry Leader of the Year award from the Academy of Travel, Tourism & Hospitality. In 2005, she was given an award for being a Baltimore “Urban Legend” from AIRS (AIDS Interfaith Residential Services, Inc).

 

When Marcia began working for the association, the association had 198 members, a budget of $25,000 and she was the only staff member. Today, the staff totals over 25, membership tops 3,000 and the budget is over $3,000,000 annually. She was named one of “Maryland’s Top 100 Women” by The Daily Record and in 2007 was honored with the first Foodservice Monthly “Foodservice Leader of the Year” award.

Marcia Harris diligently served on the boards of the National Restaurant Association, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, The Executive Director’s Council of the Maryland Office of Tourism Development, The Governor’s Workforce Development Board-Hospitality Committee, The National Academies of Travel, Tourism, Finance and IT board, and The Chesapeake Center for Youth Development (CCYD), among others.

 

Marcia Harris was most importantly the mother of four grown children, grandmother of seven and the wife of Ed Harris. Marcia was a woman of strong conviction, exuberance and had recently embraced a phrase that described her passion for life, “Life may not be the party we hoped for ... but while we are here, we might as well dance!"