Larry Lund

Holiday greetings!

This year completes the first year of my two-year term as your president and I am looking forward to a productive final year.

This year had two great Weekend Experiences; our Spring Weekend was in South Beach, Florida and this Fall we visited our Sacramento Chapter. Under the leadership of Tim Youmans, president of the Sacramento Chapter and principal of Economic & Planning Systems of Sacramento, LAI members toured some excellent examples of developments that incorporated housing with retail. We also toured the famous rail museum and the plans for its redevelopment that will double the size of downtown Sacramento. In addition, as you can see in the adjacent photo, we had a good time sampling some excellent wines in Napa while learning about agro-tourism -- really.

• At the Board of Governors meeting, we announced several service improvements for members and outlined some of the key objectives for the coming years.
• We have added a comprehensive calendar to the LAI website where Chapters can now place announcements of their upcoming events.
• A Google search engine has been added to our website providing a more familiar and powerful tool to search our site.
• We will be working on developing an improved search engine in our member’s database area. Currently, a Google search cannot be applied to a database.
• Under the leadership of Ian Lord of the Simcoe-Toronto Chapter, we will be working this year on developing a chapter procedural guidebook and updating the relationship between International and Local Chapters by issuing new chapter charters by the Fall 2005 meeting in Chicago.
• A new LAI brochure has been printed and copies are being distributed to all members with the annual invoice. Bulk copies are available from International to chapters by just e-mailing the office.
• The Board believes that China offers many opportunities for Lambda Alpha Chapters and it's time for LAI to plan for a delegation to visit certain cities where some of our members have strong contacts. I would like to hear from members if you would have an interest.
• Domestically, starting chapters in Atlanta and Santa Fe are also being discussed with local members.
• International's management firm will soon unveil its monthly reporting system of chapter dues collection to each chapter president and treasurer. This should help in monitoring membership rosters and improve membership retention.
• Stan Hamilton, president of the Land Economic Foundation (from our Vancouver Chapter) is committed to help us initiate a significant fund raising effort for our Foundation. Currently, we have only a corpus of about a quarter of a million dollars and we would like to grow account to one million. Stan has suggested some new initiatives that the Foundation could fund such as competitions between schools that would address some common concerns that many of our chapters face. Prize money would be awarded to the school that presents the best ideas. This along with other suggestions are being explored. We expect the Foundation to become more active in this coming year with new programs and initiation of major fund raising efforts. Please let us know what specific programs you would like the Foundation to initiate.
• Speaking of Foundation fund raising, when you receive your invoices, please remember to include a tax-deductible contribution to the Foundation.

Our Spring Weekend Experience will be in Boston April 29- May 1. Under the leadership of Boston Chapter president, John Fuller, from the architectural firm of John Fuller Associates, the final touches for the Spring program are being put into place. Program information will be in January KeyNotes.

In conjunction with the Boston Weekend Experience is the biannual Board of Governors meeting that includes besides the executive committee the presidents of each chapter or their representative. We are working to improve these meetings and beginning with Boston, we have invited Russell Salzman, to lead a two-hour leadership training session during the meeting. Russ is the new CEO of the Institute of Real Estate Management, a member Lambda Alpha, and more importantly a nationally renown expert in organizational management and leadership with not for profits. Mr. Salzman will develop a seminar for the Boston meeting that will help increase your effectiveness as a president of your chapter and should also help you as well in your business. Russ will continue the seminar in Chicago during the Fall Board of Governors meeting. I would like to encourage all chapter presidents not to miss this important two-part event in Boston and Chicago.

Also for next year is the 75h Anniversary of Lambda Alpha International. While we will be celebrating this anniversary all year, but a special 36th Biennial Congress/Weekend Experience will be in Chicago October 20-22.

Have a very merry holiday!

Larry Lund

International President
LarryLund@LAI.org
312-751-1250

Editor's Column

As the calendar turns to 2005, I don my turban and look forward to one of the most difficult years ever for forecasting. I could fill this page with all the negatives in the U.S. economy looking at government deficits, import/export problems, miniscule private savings, Iraq, Afghanistan, ad nauseum. Despite these negatives, I am taking a position that this year to come will be rather positive.

In 2005, there is a very good chance that we will add more than 2.0 million jobs nationally. The weak dollar will promote stronger U.S. manufactured goods sales abroad; consumer goods spending will persevere; military spending will bolster new employment in the U.S.; lowered gas prices will take less money out of household budgets; inflation will remain very low; and the construction industry will continue to blossom.

In 2004, it is likely that construction permits will hover around the 1,900,000 range, with more than 1,450,000 single family and 450,000 multi-family units permitted. In 2005, it is highly probable that the 1,900,000 record will be repeated, or come real close to it. As usual, the superstates of Texas, Florida and California will lead the way with a solid boost from Arizona, Nevada Georgia and the DelMarVa region.

Projecting home prices throughout the nation is a dicey proposition. According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home prices in 2004 jumped about 10%, twice the pace of the year before. I have a feeling that the rate of price increase will fall back to the 5-6% level on a National basis, although the hot states, lead by California, may continue to push up the rate of gain. For those of you in the crazy price states, remember that the national average resale value is $190,000, so a 5% jump is barely 10k. A rounding error in California terms.

Resales once again will be in the range of 7.5 million homes and condominiums with the south leading the way. Standard caveat: “as long as interest rates remain rational.”

Overall, unless some terrible unforeseen incident comes our way, it will be a very good year for the U.S.

Alan Nevin
International Editor
anevin@marketpointe.com

In Memoriam

Edward L. Johnson

Edward L. Johnson

1910-2004

Edward L. Johnson the first member initiated into Lambda Alpha by the founders on March 6, 1931 died December 18, 2004 at age 94 in Santa Barbara, California. Ed was part of the first group of Northwestern University students who formed Lambda Alpha in 1930 under the leadership of renowned land economist and champion of academic freedom, Richard T. Ely. Ed was the oldest surviving member from the original group of students at Northwestern.

Ed was reared in Chicago and after graduation from Northwestern began work at Bell Federal Savings and Loan Association. He served as President of Lambda Alpha from 1943-44.

In 1953, he moved to California where in 1955 he formed the Los Angels Chapter of Lambda Alpha along with other former Chicagoans, Otar Aamodt (initiated 1946) Assistant General Manager Prudential Insurance Company of America and Henry A. Babcock (initiated 1933) consultant and lecturer of finance at the University of Southern California. Ed served as the first Los Angles Chapter president.

From 1959 to 1983, Ed Johnson was the Chairman and CEO of Financial Federation, Inc., a statewide multi-billion dollar savings and loan holding company headquartered in Los Angeles, Following that he was a director of American Savings and Loan Association. He also served on many boards.

In 1989, Lambda Alpha International recognized Edward Johnson with its International Fellow Award. Ed remained active in Lambda Alpha and in 1999 attended the Board of Governors meeting in Santa Monica.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years Joyce, his son Calvin and three daughters Gloria, Janice, and Patti.

A memorial service will be held January 5, 2 p.m. at Lake Avenue Church, 393 N. Lake Ave. Pasadena, CA 91101 (626 -795-7221)

James Fawcett, First Vice President of Lambda Alpha International, will represent LAI at the memorial service.

Condolence letters would be appreciated at:

Mrs. Edward L. Johnson
2562 Treasure Drive S-4006
Santa Barbara, CA. 93105

Lambda Alpha International would welcomes memorials and tributes in Mr. Edward Johnson's memory.

Donations can either be made online at 209.224.198.102 by clicking on the " members" tab. The password is lai. Then click on " Donate to the Land Economics Foundation." For U.S. members, you can make a donation using your credit card. Also, if you wish to send a check, it should be made payable to Lambda Alpha Land Economics Foundation and mailed to 514 North Hale Street, Wheaton, IL 60187. The Land Economics Foundation is a 501(c) (3) tax-deductible foundation that supports the educational goals of the organization. Canadian members can make checks payable to the Canadian Land Economics Foundation and mailed to the same address above. Thank you.

Ray Robbins

1932-2004

Prominent lawyer in S.D., Marine Corps fighter pilot

November 21, 2004

The assignment was top secret, involving the most sensitive and advanced weaponry that Ray Robbins had ever seen.

In 1958, as a Marine Corps fighter pilot, he found himself in Taiwan and following orders to introduce the revolutionary Sidewinder missiles to the Chinese Nationalist Air Force.

Once the weapons were installed on F-86 Sabre aircraft and the pilots were trained, the opposing communist Chinese forces would be seriously overmatched in their MiG-17 jets.

Mr. Robbins led a six-person missile-installation team on the project, which culminated in what was considered the first use of air-to-air guided missiles in aerial combat. Thus, the Chinese Nationalists were able to establish air superiority in Taiwan, averting an expected invasion in what came to be known as the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis.

And Mr. Robbins had a story that he never tired of sharing.

Most San Diegans, however, knew Arlington Ray Robbins as a prominent downtown lawyer, the winner of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983, and a driving force in downtown redevelopment and airport relocation.

"In a civic sense, he was quiet, strong and very knowledgeable," said Malin Burnham, a real estate developer and civic leader. "He was there when you needed him, and somehow I always picture him being on the winning team."

Mr. Robbins died Nov. 5 at his Mount Helix home, at the end of a full work week with much still on his agenda. He was 72.

The cause of death was a heart arrhythmia, said his son Charles of San Diego. "It was so sudden. He fell asleep in his chair."

As a survivor of heart attacks in 1988 and in the mid -1990s, Mr. Robbins bounced back to continue his career seemingly without a hitch. "He was planning to practice until 2006, and then go into semi-retirement," said his son, a partner in Robbins & Keehn, the downtown business law firm his father and uncle, Scott Keehn, founded in 1983.

Mr. Robbins' involvement in civic issues began more than 27 years ago with San Diegans Inc., a planning and redevelopment organization that became the Downtown San Diego Partnership.

In the early 1980s, he joined city and county officials in national tours to review downtown redevelopment projects. The goal was to borrow ideas that could be applicable to San Diego.

"The best example we found was Baltimore," recalled Burnham, a catalyst in creating a downtown redevelopment district. "We decided to copy rather than reinvent the wheel, and Ray was a big influence. Being a lawyer, he was very practical. And he helped put together a proposal for the Centre City Development Corp."

CCDC is City Hall's downtown redevelopment arm, bringing $292 million in tax-increment financing to rebuild the area in the past decade. That money has sparked $1.5 billion in private investment downtown, according to CCDC records.

Mr. Robbins was equally committed to a new international airport. As chairman of the Alliance in Support of Airport Progress in the 21st Century, widely known as ASAP21, Mr. Robbins championed relocation of San Diego's major airport from Lindbergh Field to North Island Naval Air Station.

Arlington Ray Robbins was born in Portland, Ore., where he learned to hunt and fish as a youth.

"He often told me that if he had not been a lawyer, he would have been a forest ranger," his son said.

In high school, where his father taught music and industrial arts, Mr. Robbins played the trombone in the band and played center on the basketball team.

He considered a career in medicine after entering the University of California Los Angeles. But once his pre-med teacher introduced him to cadavers, he opted to study law.

After graduating in 1955, Mr. Robbins joined the Marines and underwent flight training in Pensacola, Fla.

He became familiar with the Sidewinder as the pilot of the FJ4 Fury, a supersonic fighter jet capable of deploying the missile.

His 1958 mission in Taiwan was shrouded in mystery until he was briefed by an Air Force general. When the general asked him if the Sidewinders could be installed and fired from F-86 aircraft, he gave the only answer that seemed appropriate: "If it can be done, my men can do it."

His statement to the general, he later wrote, contained "more bravado than common sense." But it proved accurate.

Two weeks later, 20 F-86 aircraft were armed with two Sidewinders each, installed under his team's supervision. The Nationalist Chinese aircraft downed six MiG-17s, which the communist forces had obtained from the Soviet Union.

In September 1998, Mr. Robbins attended a 40-year reunion of the Sidewinder air battle at Hsinchu Air Base in Taiwan. "The principal toast was to 40 years of Taiwanese prosperity, owing in large part to the extremely successful Sidewinder mission," he later wrote in a message to fellow members of his VMF-323 squadron.

Mr. Robbins began his legal career with the Southern Counties Gas Co. of California, then became general counsel for FedMart, which brought him to San Diego in 1966. He bought a home on Mount Helix and became a fixture in San Diego legal and civic circles.

In 1983, 20 years after being admitted to practice law in California, he prevailed in a U.S. Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Sells Engineering, which his son described as "an epic struggle with the IRS."

Buoyed by the victory, Mr. Robbins joined Keehn, his brother-in-law, in launching a new law partnership.

"I think they set the standard in ethics," said Mickey Manaster, a client of Mr. Robbins' firm for 20 years. "Ray's word was his bond. The pervasive attitude today is, 'If you don't agree with me you're wrong.' That never applied to Ray. He would listen to both sides of he story.

"We were on opposite sides of the presidential campaign, but we proved friends could be friends and respect the other's opinion."

It didn't hurt that Robbins won 11 cases in which Manaster was the plaintiff.

"We went 11-0-1," Manaster said. One case was unresolved except for the paying of legal fees by the other side.

In addition to his son, Mr. Robbins is survived by his wife, Helen; sons, Craig of La Ca×ada Flintridge and Clifford of San Diego; a nephew whom he considered his adopted son, Shawn Potter of Tustin; brother, John C. Robbins of Portland, Ore.; and five grandchildren.

A private service was held Nov.10.

By Jack Williams
Staff Writer
The San Diego Tribune

Chapter Corner

Robert B. McLeod, CEO of Newland Communities and San Diego chapter member, has been named to the Board of Governors of the ULI Foundation.

Arlington Ray Robbins, a long-term member of the San Diego legal community and a highly active Lambda Alpha member, passed away in November at age 70.

New Members

George Washington Chapter:

Lisa M. Burcham, D.C. Government Office of Planning
Oliver T. Carr, III, Carr Capital Corporation
David DeSelm, Gensler
A. Daniel Hertz, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
George P. Kreis, Tompkins Builders, Inc.
Wanchul Lee, Wanchul Lee Associates, P.C.
David C. Lennhoff, Delta Associates
Arthur C. Nelson, Virginia Tech
Richard L. Parli, Parli Appraiser, Inc.
Robert M. Pinkard, Cassidy & Pinkard, Inc.
Deborah Ratner Salzberg, Forest City Washington
Harry K. Schwartz
Nanacy C. Somerville, American Society of Landscape Architects
Beverly D. Wood, Office of the Architect of the Capitol

Golden Gate Chapter:

Annette Billingsley, Real Estate Union Bank of California
William Carney, Landscript Associates
Charles Edwin Chase, San Francisco Architectural Heritage
Richard Dishnica, The Dishnica Co.
Robert Hatheway, University of California Real Estate, Servicer Group
Richard C. Jacobs, Howard Rice Nemerovski, Canady Falk & Rabkin
C. Michael Kamm, BT Commercial
Linda S. Law, Law & Associates
Stephen J. LoPresti, Gerson Bakar & Associates
Suzie McGill, MacFarlane Partners
Jacqueline Moore, Divco West Properties
Monique Moyer, Port of San Francisco
John T. (Jack) Nagle, Goldfarb & Lipman
Brian Perlman, The Ron Kaufman Companies
L. Joanne Sakai, San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
Neil Sekhri, Farella Braun & Martel
Timothy Treadway, Bay West Development Co.
Michael Zischke, Morrison & Foerster

London Chapter:

Gia Campari, Trilogy Associates

Philadelphia Chapter:

Anthony P. Forte, Saul Ewing LLP

Lambda Alpha International Student Association at John Marshall Law School:

Aleksandra Fremderman
Kristin Gutenberger
Neil Shelton
Vinu Malhan
Jacques Waguespack
Chad Richman
Sean Ziadeh

Lambda Alpha International Student Association at Temple University:

Diana Ahn
Zachary Ben-Dov
Tiffany Betteridge
Dustin Burke
Karlenis Castillo
Christopher Costanzo
Michelle Domingo
Traci Frank
Jessica Gomes
Brian Harvey
Mauricia Holman
Katrina Holmes
Daniel Kane
Ernie Knechel
Josh Matthew
E. Renee Pszczola
Heather Riggs
David Sanchez
Dwayne Slappy
Kabree Still
Jordan Toepez
Jacqueline Vaughan
Ata Zandieh

Lambda Alpha International Student Association at Virginia Commonwealth University, Rho Epsilon Real Estate Fraternity:
Carl Stephen Albis III
Brian Bock
Denetta Coles
Kristen Davis
Lindsey Floyd
Rashad Gresham
Melissa Harreld
John Hauserman
Nicholas Hill
Tamara Jones
Victoria D. Mack
Vik Murthy
Woni Nelson
April Newcomb
Josh Perkins
Justin Rosner
Ali Samir
Sheba Scott
Elssa Solomon
Li Truong
Walter Jennings Wash
Ian S. Watson