Joe’s magic came not only naturally from his Southern charm, warm smile, and infectious laugh, but, more importantly, his strong Christian faith and knowing that he had been granted a “second chance” in life, and he truly wanted to do his best.
Born in a small town in Tennessee on a 100-acre farm, Joe would joke that his parents sold the milk-cow when he went off to college.
The Navy brought Joe to Moffett Field in Sunnyvale CA as a P-3 Orion pilot in the mid 1970’s. He began his commercial real estate career in 1980 at Cornish & Carey Commercial as an investment sales broker in Santa Clara, working his way up the ranks to executive vice president. Always striving to make things better, Joe was involved in just about every aspect of Commercial Real Estate: Broker, Financial Analyst, Construction Manager, Developer, Property Manager, Speaker, Teacher, Mentor.
He was always ready to say “Yes” when asked to put together a panel for BOMA, lead a class on real estate or counsel a colleague’s son or daughter in career decisions.
His love for his children gave him the strength to survive a life-threatening case of cancer in 1986/87, and when he returned to Cornish & Carey in 1988, Joe’s tenacity and love for the business earned him the Association of Silicon Valley Broker’s (ASVB) Investment Broker of the Year.
In 1996 Joe joined the property development/management firm of Orchard Properties as President and four years’ later in 2000, he and his wife Elizabeth purchased the property management division, rebranding the company as Orchard Commercial, Inc. They grew the firm to become the largest privately held property management company in Northern California.
Throughout Joe’s 40+ years in commercial real estate, his reputation as an industry leader continued to grow. In 2016 the ASVB again honored Joe with the prestigious Michael Murphy Award, an award given to those who have lived by a code of “integrity and pursuit of excellence.”