Sandy Apgar '62 A books and mortar man
There is a sense of vitality, although the subject matter is centuries old; a view of the future, although the habits of the past seem unshakable; and an understanding of process, even though the training suggests a structured focus.
That's an impression of what Mahlon "Sandy" Apgar IV '62 brings to his career as a real estate executive interested in education and an educator committed to excellence in business.
He sits in the antique-filled, book-lined study of his precivi War home in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., discussing the threads that link Dartmouth, Oxford University's Magdalen College, where he did graduate work, and a two-decades-old career as an increasingly successful real estate investment adviser.
"I'm linked to these institutions, plus Blair Academy, where I prepared for Dartmouth, and the Harvard Business School, where I completed my formal education, by my interest in two specific themes: excellence in teaching and the urban heritage of the United States and Western Europe," he said.
Apgar is a co-founder and chairman of the Management Committee of Wellington Real Estate, a three-city firm specializing in creating and managing real estate investment programs and portfolios for institutional and private clients worldwide.
That means he is an authority on international real estate investment management, a status based upon 12 years of living and working in Great Britain, teaching at the Harvard Business and Design Schools, and writing two books and more than 40 articles on real estate, corporate management, and urban policy issues and a survey of foreign investment in U.S. real estate.
That would seem to make Apgar a "bricks and mortar" man, and evaluating the investment potential of offices and apartment buildings is what he does every day. However, any conversation with him soars almost immediately to thoughts of an "urban heritage" in Europe and a lack thereof in America and, without missing a beat, to the need to help foster "teaching excellence" at all levels of education, particularly for those concerned with financing and building our cities.
It all began in the Dartmouth-MIT Joint Program in Urban Studies in the early sixties. "The most important aspect of my Dartmouth experience was the inspiration I received from great teachers like Lew Stilwell, Bancroft Brown, Frank Smallwood, Wentworth Eldredge, Gresham Sykes, and others," Apgar explained. "The urban studies program led me rather naturally into city planning, urban affairs, real estate development, and investment."
After Dartmouth, Apgar spent three years in the army, stationed in Germany, from which vantage point he was drawn to Magdalen College at Oxford to study the British approach to urban development as an issue of public policy.
"As I pursued my research on the policy history of British urban planning, I concluded I was more of a doer than a theorist about cities, so I decided to go to Harvard Business School. En route I took a summer job with James Rouse, whom I regard as the leading American urban developer."
Apgar defines his motivation not in terms of a quest for personal wealth or a business career by itself, "but as a means to improve the beauty, humanity, and efficiency of our cities. Superior design, development concepts, materials, and workmanship establish the attractiveness and usefulness of real estate projects, and improve their value to both users and investors.
"Many people including investors and politicans do not recognize the fact that the real estate industry, both in capital investment and in development and management services, has an extraordinary impact on capital formation and on how the 'built environment' looks," he said.
"The process of conceptualizing, planning, constructing, and operating the buildings in our cities and communities is central to the quality of what we see around us. And high quality in the offices, shops, and apartments we use is fundamental to creating long-term investment value." That was the thesis of a book Apgar wrote in 1976, New Perspectives on Community Development.
Apgar carried these interests outside the office. He is vice chairman of the Urban Land Institute's Commercial and Retail Development Council, the real estate development industry's leading professional body, which emphasizes the effective use of land. He was honored by the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers for his "contributions to appraisal education." He is a director of the World Affairs Council, along with a dozen other prominent Washingtonians, who sponsor talks by leading foreign statesmen to local citizens'groups. And he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, with an active interest in historic preservation.
In the meantime, Apgar had begun his real estate career with The Rouse Company, then became a partner of McKinsey and Company, based in London and serving major institutions, corporations, developers, an government agencies on real estate strategy, acquisitions, projcc management, and development.
Teaching and writing have always occupied Apgar. "From prep school on I've encountered great teachers, and they have made a major difference in my life and my career. Excellent teaching is a precious commodity, and helping to nurture that commodity is one way alumni can continue to be involved with their schools, he said.
Apgar, a doer in this area as well as in his career, has acted both alone and in concert with classmates at three of his schools. At Blair he established, anonymously, an award to honor an English teacher who died shortly after Apgar graduated. At Magdalen, he has set up a fund, named for his family, to give promising junior fellows (roughly equivalent to assistant professors) a chance to do research and travel necessary to furthering their scholarship. And at Dartmouth he took the lead in having the Class of 1962 establish as a 20th-reunion gift a fellowship to enable non-tenured humanities and social science faculty members who have performed with distinction in the classroom to have one term off for research to enhance their teaching careers.
The idea is unique in several respects. One, most class gifts to the Dartmouth focus on physical assets, "bricks and mortar," rather than on "teaching excellence as an essential feature of the Dartmouth experience."
Two, the gift involves alumni working closely with the faculty in an area of importance to the faculty. Concerned about proceeding "in a spirit of helping without meddling," Apgar, with classmate Daniel Tompkins, a classics professor at Temple, first broached the idea with Hans Penner, then dean of the faculty, and President Mc- Laughlin. Their enthusiasm was followed by faculty acceptance.
The results speak for themselves. "What pleases me most/' Apgar said, "is that we have been able to engage the faculty in alumni involvement in the educational process. This, I think, counters the common misconception of faculties that alumni are interested mainly in fundraising and football, but not in the academic purpose of the College."
Apgar's contribution was recognized last April when his classmates surprised him with a plaque inscribed "with gratitude for his enlightened service to Class and College in the development and administration of the Class of 1962 Faculty Fellowship."
Magdalen is doing its own "nurturing" of Apgar, naming him this year as the first American ever to serve on its Investment Committee to advise the president of the College on investment and management of the College's endowment, of which about 60 percent is in real estate.
The Magdalen appointment completes a circle of sorts, combining Apgar's professional credentials with his personal interests and drives. Indications are that the combination will continue. Along with his wife, Anne, and their children, Apgar sees teaching, writing, and public service as endeavors he will continue to weave into his life.
The author is a Washington communications and public relationsconsultant.
