His grandfather was a carpenter and German immigrant; his father ran a construction company; he spent most of his life working as a real estate developer: a nice path upward for a family through an industry.
He grew up on Long Island, where his father built much of Dwight Eisenhower's estate. Like many of my family, he came to Washington DC at the time the FDR was dramatically expanding the size of the federal government, and with it the prosperity of the metropolitan region. During the war, he was an officer, working on stateside base construction for the mid-Atlantic. It was then he met Marian Blake, who had come to DC from Seattle to help the Pentagon balance its books. She was one of five women on the transcontinental troop train that brought her to her new hometown. My grandparents knew each other for five days before they were married, and stayed together for over 60 years.
After the war my grandfather purchased plots of rural land in northern Virginia and had shopping malls built on them, malls that served the rapidly expanding DC suburbs. The business was quite lucrative, and the proceeds enabled him to travel extensively, including taking a cruise that circumnavigated the globe. He was an incredibly gregarious man, and was able to make long lasting friendships wherever he went. When I was growing up, it was not unusual for him to be hosting guests from Finland, or Hawaii. He was the hit of my wedding, charming the socks off everyone.
He is survived by his wife, daughter, two grandsons, and three great-grandchildren.
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