Tribute to Lloyd Hanford Jr., CPM Emeritus

IREM lost one of its most inspirational and influential leaders when Lloyd D. Hanford Jr. passed away on Nov. 25, 2020, at the age of 92.

Lloyd Hanford Jr. served IREM in multiple ways—as a leader, an educator, a writer, a mentor, a colleague—along the way elevating the stature of the real estate management profession for the benefit of all engaged in it.

He earned his CPM in 1954 when he was 28, becoming actively involved in the organization before taking the helm as IREM’s president in 1969. He followed in the footsteps of his father, Lloyd D. Hanford Sr., who had been president of IREM 11 years earlier. “IREM has lost an extraordinary member whose family laid the groundwork from the beginning for what IREM is today,” says Tan Tek Lum, CPM, IREM’s 1982 president, who considered Lloyd “a dear friend and mentor.”

Lloyd was born in San Francisco in 1928 into a real estate family. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, and serving in the U.S. Army, he joined Hanford-Freund & Company, the business his father founded in the 1930s that he would later run. The company remains in operation today and is an AMO-accredited firm. An appraiser who held the MAI designation, Lloyd was also owner of Hanford-Healy, a national valuation and consulting company.

As an IREM instructor, Lloyd was exceptional, both for the intellectual curiosity and knowledge that he brought into the classroom and for his ability to energize and engage students seeking their CPM designation. Teaching at a time when IREM classrooms were often filled with 100 or more students, Lloyd became a mentor and advisor to thousands of newcomers to the field of property management who were fortunate enough to learn from a true master. In 1983, Lloyd was recognized as the recipient of the first Lloyd D. Hanford Sr. Distinguished Instructor Award, named for his father, who also was a highly respected educator. It was a public acknowledgment of the many lives he had touched as a teacher.

When he wasn’t imparting his wisdom in the classroom, Lloyd was sharing his expertise through his writings, which frequently appeared in the Journal of Property Management, The Appraisal Journal, and other academic publications. Indeed, he never stopped studying and writing about real estate. As recently as April 2020, observing the COVID-19 pandemic and contemplating how it might impact commercial real estate, he wrote a blog post entitled “What Is Real Estate Worth Today?”

“Today, we are caught in a worldwide pandemic that has, at least temporarily, locked down most of the global economy,” he wrote. “Everything is closed and people are staying at home.” After remarking that some retail businesses may not make it through the crisis, that rising unemployment could mean falling demand for office space and missed rent payments, and that any planned travel is likely to be deferred, Lloyd concluded that “These concerns and hundreds more should tell us that no real estate professional has any more than a ‘gut feeling’ as to the worth of any property. There is no current data to review and no recognizable demand to study. Often, we are able to draw from past experience to develop a view of the future, but the present situation is like nothing else we have ever experienced. The only lessons seem to be that eventually things turn around. But the missing data point is ‘WHEN’.”

In 2019, when the IREM Global Summit was held in San Francisco, Lloyd was among the past presidents who were on hand to share their perspectives with current IREM leaders and get together for an evening of camaraderie and storytelling. A number of years had passed since Lloyd last attended an IREM Global Summit, and he and his wife, Noel, were warmly welcomed. “As the 2020 IREM president, I was so fortunate to meet Lloyd in San Francisco last September at the IREM Global Summit,” says Cheryl Gray, CPM, upon learning of Lloyd’s passing. “He was so gracious, and his passion for our industry was ever-present through all the challenges of 2020.”

Lloyd was a dedicated tennis player and an avid downhill skier and, later in life, he enjoyed golf and bridge. As he wrote on his Facebook page: “Gave up downhill skiing at age 75 and took up golf. A mistake.”

In addition to his enthusiasm for skiing and real estate, Lloyd also had a passion for travel and for helping at-risk youth. The latter he demonstrated through his involvement with The Guardsman, a Bay Area group that provides outdoor education programs and scholarships for disadvantaged young people. His passion for travel led him and Noel to embark on more than 50 cruises to exotic destinations around the world.

Lloyd is survived by Noel, his wife of 66 years, and his two sons, Tim and John, all of whom were with him when he died peacefully at his home in Rancho Mirage, California.

He is also survived by two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.