 “A Goodbye Message”
Wally Yaffe
I’ve never attempted to say goodbye to anyone in one of my messages before, but I thought this might be a unique opportunity since the special person in question was one of my most respected mentors and someone who I thought about quite often over the years. Recently, Wally Yaffe, a successful real estate investor/developer, passed away from congestive heart failure.
I became a tenant in one of Wally’s downtown Boston office buildings on Temple Place (one block from the Combat Zone and walking distance to the exclusive restaurant, Loch Ober) That was back in the early 1960s when I was fumbling around trying to learn how to publish a commercial real estate newspaper. A recent college graduate named Stephen Karp just started working for Wally and he handled all the redevelopment projects.
Both Steve and I used to sit in Wally’s office after the day was over and pick his brain - ask questions, shut up and listen to the answers. We learned a lot. Wally grew up in a real estate family. His father owned a lot of commercial property in Boston and even a gold mine in Colorado. Wally managed, renovated and did
some developing. His brother-inlaw, the late Z Wasserman, was an expert at buying buildings, then selling them. Maybe he was the first guy who successfully flipped an investment property, which is now a big part of our business.
The three of them, Wally, Z and Steve built a very successful shopping mall in Danvers (Liberty Tree Mall) that launched Steve’s stupendous career as a mall maven leading to him becoming a billionaire.
I never quite reached that status, but our careers all started on those late evenings when an understanding, caring and sharing gentleman, named Wally Yaffe, would just sit in his office, and answer any questions two young novices posed.
Wally was one of the first executives I profiled in the New England Real Estate Journal. One day he told me about how he contacted a bank for a mortgage. When Wally sat down with the banker, a man he had never met before, the banker started telling him all he knew about Wally, and ended up giving Wally
the mortgage. “How do you know so much about me?” Wally asked. The banker smiled and pulled out a folder from his desk filled with New England Real Estate Journal profiles. He showed them to Wally and said, “I do my homework.”
One more story. A fellow developer owed the IRS $80,000 and was having trouble making the payments, getting deeper and deeper in debt to them. Wally wrote the man a check and said, “Now you can pay me back with no interest.”
Thanks Wally. We’ll all miss that type of education. Some people can’t be replaced.
Someone recently suggested that if I wanted any comment about my messages that I should put in my email address. So here it is and be my guest. rollster@vermontel.net |