Many Paved the Way

It’s obvious so much about the real estate business has changed. The way transactions are handled, the speed of information, the access to data and so much more. While it’s easy to think about that in abstract ways, how often do we reflect on the people who ushered those changes? Change and progress doesn’t happen in a vacuum, someone – or many someones – have to drive change.


Have you ever thought about the firsts in this industry? The first woman to lead the Board, the first local leader to serve the national association, the first multiple listing service, the first lockbox system. Who were those people and who was behind those monumental industry revolutions? So many firsts with rich, powerful stories make the industry you enjoy today.

Beth Blake, our Centennial Chair,
flips through the pages of
MIBOR history.

We kicked off the centennial year by publishing the organization’s first comprehensive history. In book and video format the work, REALTORS®: Opening Doors for 100 Years, shows those stories in vivid detail through many first or secondhand accounts of how the ideas were sparked and who lead the idea into reality resulting in progress and thus a new way of doing business.


How much do you know about those who paved your way? Have you heard of Helen Hirt, Bud Tucker, Mary Binford, Bruce Savage, Dick Nye, Aileen Klaiber, James Cruse, Elizabeth Booth, or Bruce Savage? Looks like you have some reading to do…