Member Spotlight - John Topp

John Topp was born in Waterloo, Iowa, and moved to Harlingen at a young age in 1952. He graduated with a B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin. He co-founded Tuesday Morning, Inc., a nation-wide discount retail gift chain. John returned to Harlingen and started Topp Direct Marketing, a direct marketing agency and publishing company, in 1983. John serves on the Board of Trustees and as Vice-Chairman of Valley Baptist Medical Center – Harlingen. He served as President of the Board of Directors of the Mail Advertisers Service Association – Southwest, the Board of Directors of the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce, President of the Harlingen Country Club Board of Directors, President of the Harlingen Rotary Club, and is currently serving as Secretary of the Harlingen Area Rotary Endowment Fund.  John serves the First United Methodist Church Harlingen as Lay Leader and on the Executive and Finance Teams. He is a certified Lay Speaker, and has led Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University classes for 5 years.  .John and Darlene have served together as lobbyists in Washington and Austin, advocating for persons with developmental disabilities. They are responsible for editing some of the current SSI legislation and helping to secure its passage in Washington.  John has served as Treasurer of the Cameron County Republican Party, County Chairman of the Bill Clements for Governor Campaign, County Chairman of the Reagan-Bush Campaign, and as a political consultant for Texas State Representative, countywide and local races. He was elected as a Bush delegate to the 1988 National Republican Convention.

He and Darlene, his wife of 50 years, have 2 grown children and 4 grandchildren who live in Austin. They visit them frequently, as John has orange blood.