Blog Posting # 737, Copyright 14 April 2023. EducateMHC
Parallel Perspectives. HUD-Code manufactured housing is federally-regulated, performance based, affordable factory-built housing! And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the investment real estate component of manufactured housing! EducateMHC alone is the online advocate, historian, trend tracker, and text resource for these two business models! To input this blog or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815, email: gfa7156@aol.com, or visit www.EducateMHC.com to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry. This is the sole professional community management text in print today! And SWAN SONG is a history of land lease communities and official record of annual MH production totals since 1955; and my autobiography, from SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven – describes my combat adventures in Vietnam & 40+ years business career in MH and communities.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus member of MHI, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, and retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines – with service in Vietnam in 1968/9.
‘Who Will Preserve Your Legacy?’ booklet updated for you!
This booklet, first published in 2018, ‘sold out’ during year 2022. It has been enlarged and reprinted for distribution at the annual RV/MH Hall of Fame induction banquet in Elkhart, IN., on 21 August 2023.And copies of the booklet will be made available to interested parties. The original booklet summarized the autobiographies of ten manufactured housing (‘MH’) pioneers and notable businessmen. The new edition includes four additional MH autobiographies.
What it does not contain, sad to say, are any recreational vehicle (‘RV’) industry-related autobiographies, and autobiographies authored by female executives and entrepreneurs. However, several of the 14 MH-focused autobiographies make it clear their subjects also have ties within the RV industry. And there are at least two autobiographies ‘in the works’ from the distaff side of manufactured housing.
If, after reading the list of authors and their respective self-published autobiography titles, following here, you know of other titles worthy of inclusion in the next edition of the booklet, please let me know via gfa7156@aol.com
Kristian Jensen, Sr., authored ‘A Danish American’ back in the 1970s, and was one of the original inductees into the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s prestigious Hall of Fame.
John Crean, founder of Fleetwood Enterprises, with Jim Washburn, co-authored ‘The Wheel & I’. His tome, case bound with leather covers and gold-trimmed pages is a collector’s dream.
James (‘Jim’) Clayton, with Bill Retherford & Amy Nolan, co-authored ‘First a Dream’. This autobiography has gone through two editions to date and continues to be a popular ‘read’.
‘The Life & Times of B.M. Vukovich’ is a family-produced photoautobioraphy, chronicling the exciting adventures and successful business career of the late Borislav (‘Boro’) Vukovich.
Harrell & Darrell Cohron, with Matt Cohron, co-authored ‘The Trailer Twins’. Another case bound text; this is a ‘reality’ description of the business acumen of these twin brothers.
Mike Conlon’s ‘Unconventional Wealth’ is, in this observer’s opinion, Part I of his life (early years) as founder of a portfolio firm of land lease communities. Part II? Hopefully, to come!
George N. Goldman authored ‘The Road Less Traveled’. Well known throughout the Midwest during the 1970s thru 1990s, George’s book ties together tales of Woodalls and other interests.
Alvan L. Schrader’s ‘No Respect At All…A PATH TO MILLION$’, should be ‘required reading’ by everyone in the MH industry, as it clearly describes challenges facing us past, present & future.
Samuel Zell of Equity Lifestyle Communities, Inc. (a.k.a. ELS, Inc., a REIT) authored the only traditionally-published autobiography to date, ‘Am I Being Too Subtle?’ Another ‘must read’.
Matthew Jenkins, DVM, was a USAF officer, veterinarian, portfolio owner of communities, interim president of Tuskegee University, philanthropist, and wrote ‘Positive Possibilities’.
Jim, Ralph & Jeff Scoular of South Dakota, co-authored ‘Leap of Faith’ – the story of three generations of their families, a brief history of MH, as well as the RV/MH Hall of Fame.
George O’Leary’s ‘The O’Learys of Beechwood’ traces 250 years of his family’s history, beginning in Ireland, continuing in Canada and the U.S. Heavily illustrated with photographs.
George Allen’s ‘SWAN SONG’ & ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’ are a history of the land lease community, and author’s 50+ years in the USMC, factory-built housing, & communities.
So, where can you find and or purchase these books? They are all in the stacks at the RV/MH Hall of Fame library in Elkhart, IN. And many of the titles are also ‘for sale’ there as well (574) 293-2344. However, Kris Jenkins book is long out of print and unavailable for purchase, as is the photoautobiography of Boris Vukovich. Sam Zell and George Goldman books are available online via amazon.com, as are my two autobiographies via www.educatemhc.com. George O’Leary’s book, at present, is only available directly from him: George@rinconcountry.com
As pleased as I am to have identified and collected these 14 MH-related autobiographies, it pains me to realize how many untold tales there are, and how likely it is we will never hear of or read most of them. Some examples. Wouldn’t you like to read histories of HUD-Code MH manufacturers like the Decio family’s Skyline Homes, John Bostick’s Sunshine Homes, Chuck Fanaro’s Hi-Tech Housing & Saddlebrook Farms (There’s an short version in ‘SWAN SONG’), and Wally Comer’s Adventure Homes? Or how ‘bout land lease community portfolio pioneers like Randy Rowe and Gary McDaniel, then Eugene & Sam Landy’s firm UMH Properties, or Spencer & Ross Partrich firms Lautrec, Ltd. and RHP Properties? Paul Bradley’s firm ROC USA is briefly profiled in ‘SWAN SONG’. Then there’s Mike Sullivan’s Newport Pacific, as well as Dick Bessire & Keith Casenhiser’s Bessire & Casenhiser fee management firms, plus Martin, Tim & Todd Newby of Newby Management in FL. Also, individuals with unique tales to share: Spencer Roane, MHM & SECO; John Rogosich, CPM; Nathan Smith, Tim Williams (of 21st Mortgage), Ted Boers, founder of DATACOMP, Kurt Kelley of Mobile Agency, Matt Follett, Julio Jaramillo; and the father/son team of Kamal & Rob Shouhayib. I’d be especially happy to read autobiographies by Sharon Niccum of ACT III, and Barbara Hames of Hames Homes in IA. And the list goes on…can think of dozens more of good stories untold to date.
Need one final thought to get motivated to begin penning your memoirs (i.e. ‘short stories’) cum autobiography? The following is from Susan Orlean’s recent release ‘The Library Book’:
“The idea of being forgotten is terrifying. I fear not just that I, personally, will be forgotten, but that we are all doomed as being forgotten – that the sum of life is ultimately nothing; that we experience joy and disappointment and aches and delights and loss, make our little mark on the world, and then we vanish, and the mark is erased, and it is as if we never existed.” So, “Writing a book, just like building a library, is an act of sheer defiance. It is a declaration that you believe in the persistence of memory.” P.93.
GFA