Developer and Philanthropist
As a youngster during the late 1930s, I was blessed to leave the desert heat of Phoenix and spend two weeks in summer camp in Prescott. I thought that was as close as I was going to get to heaven on earth.
I still hold that vision almost 90 years later.
Out of the Navy I moved to Phoenix, where I developed for 30 years. After that I moved to Prescott, and Bill Gary, Mark Dupress and I decided to build what is now Ponderosa Plaza Mall. We got the site moved into the City because I wanted it to receive the retail tax dollars.
A few years later, my wife Linda and I had another vision — now branded as The Ranch at Prescott. We knew the weather, ambiance, especially the arts and music, would entrance people.
We are classical music, opera buffs and focus on expanding our cultural educational venues. We have access to the Metropolitan Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet. We have the Prescott POPS Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the Prescott Center for the Performing Arts, the Central Arizona Concert Band, and other organizations.
We envision bringing a professional annual summer fair to Prescott to bring the city recognition as a sponsor of genuine artistic talent.
Linked to this is our support of education.
We’re blessed with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, recently voted the top aerospace-aeronautical institution in the U.S. We’re proud to have endowed the Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium. Of course, Yavapai College is an exceptional sponsor of quality cultural and artistic activities.
We know that thousands of people want to retire in Prescott, so we supported the development of Touchmark at the Ranch, a 44-acre upscale senior living facility.
I am not hesitant to say Prescott is one of the most forward-looking communities in Arizona, the Southwest. I am humbled to be a part of that heritage.
