William Macbeth, S.E.C.
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An S.E.C. Biography
Bill Macbeth was born November 20, 1928 in Lubbock, Texas to his father, Gordon and his mother, Eria. During his life he has experienced a highly varied and very successful business career.
Bill’s father was a native Texan and an extremely talented man who farmed, mined, manufactured and constructed. Bill’s father died in 1982. Bill’s wife, Drusilla maintains that his father and a grandfather that he never knew were “without a doubt” the persons who had the greatest influence on his life. She says that Bill talks at length about Hugh Cronin, a YMCA Director who also made quite an impression on him. Bill’s mother came from Kentucky where she was born to a farm family in 1908. She died in 1980. Bill had one sibling, a sister, Sandra, who was seven years younger. She married at 19, had one daughter, divorced and was killed in a car accident at the young age of 21.
Growing up in the small town environment of Pueblo, Colorado, Bill enjoyed a happy youth. He was on the high school track team and he played on the tennis team. He was the photo editor for his high school annual for two years and had the lead in his senior play. An asthmatic child, he spent his summers from 4th grade through high school at a YMCA boys camp in the Greenhorn Mountains outside Pueblo. As a camp counselor and as head horse wrangler for the last 5 years, those summers were, without a doubt, the highlight of his teenage years. He and his best friends from that era, both male and female, have kept in touch throughout all these years.
Leaving the “safe” environment of his a small hometown, Bill returned to Texas to attend Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth. He only spent one year at Texas Christian before transferring to Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky where he joined the Kappa Alpha Fraternity. However, with no real major, aim or goal he quit school after two years to go into business with his father. (Later in life he would go back to take advanced coursework at the University of Denver Business School.)
Bill’s dad was in the concrete aggregate business in Santa Fe, New Mexico, shipping aggregate all over the Western and Midwest United States. He also had a concrete block plant, which Bill ran. Bill was capable and did, at times, run the mining operation, as well as the loading operation of the aggregate business.
Bill married Drusilla in November of 1950. Bill’s father had given jobs to two of Bill’s fraternity brothers from Lexington. One of these was Bill’s best friend, who he accompanied home from school for Christmas. While there his friend got him a blind date and they went out to dinner, dancing and then on to Christmas Eve Service at the Episcopal Church. That New Year’s Eve, while he and Drusilla babysat her younger sister and brother, Bill asked her to marry him. Of their honeymoon Drusilla says: “Although not a courtship experience, our honeymoon was different. The other fraternity brother that worked for Bill’s father went along with us on our honeymoon. We drove from Santa Fe to Vera Cruz, Mexico. We saw things and participated in things that we have remembered all these years.”
Bill says that his life’s goal was: “To raise a decent God fearing family which we have done and they remain close knit today.” Having a family and all the responsibility that goes with it had a great influence on Bill’s life. Early-on, he got a job traveling the upper Midwest for National Cash Register, setting up systems for banks and other institutions. However, he decided to give up a promising career with NCR to spend more with his children. Because of his accounting acumen, he secured a position as the Comptroller for the concessionaire at Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks and was able to devote more time to raising their family. The result was 6 highly accomplished children and 15 grandchildren.
The first, Andrew was born premature (weighing just 3 lbs. 12 oz.) and was sent home from the hospital after 3 days, not expecting to live. He surprised them, becoming a most inquisitive and focused child. Today he is a successful and noted vascular surgeon in Stockton, California. Andrew has three daughters.
Cameron is most like his grandfather. He liked 4 H, and in particular photography. Later he would prove adept in construction work and excelled at real estate management. He owned and operated a management business in Yuma for a number of years before selling it and moving to Albuquerque where he owned and operated a real estate management company. He has since sold that company and now lives in Prescott, Arizona raising horses. Cameron has one son, one daughter and one stepdaughter.
Laurie Anne had two older brothers and two younger brothers, so her life was well guarded throughout their school years together. Her high school years were rather uneventful except that she (like most of Bill’s children) was very interested in 4 H. “Dad and Mom have given us a lot of memorable experiences: living in Yellowstone and Glacier Parks, attending a lot of schools, being involved in 4 H, Girl Scouts, church, PTA, and wonderful vacations. I feel that all of these has made each one of us well rounded and appreciative of their love. Not so much of material things, but of feelings. Dad and Mom never fought or said unkind words to each other, at least not in front of us kids. Because of their respect and love for each other, I feel that this carried over into my own life. ‘Look at how the person you are involved with treats the people he is supposed to love.’ A philosophy that both of my parents instilled in each of their children.”
Laurie went to the University of Arizona and has a Master’s degree in education. She taught fourth and sixth grades in a two-room school in Show Low, Arizona for 8 years. During one summer while she was working at Yellowstone Park she met a man (reportedly a great guy), fell in love, married and now lives in West Yellowstone, Montana. Laurie has no children.
Brian, the third son (and fourth child) has always been independent and extremely focused. Today he is legal counsel for Aramco Services Company. Brian is married and has two sons.
Charles was born in Butte, Montana on an August 17th that snowed, a rarity for that day, even in Butte. Charles had some bad times as well as a great many good ones; but, through it all he was a delight for those around him. He was, without a doubt, the best athlete in the family. At one point in his life Charles was married, had no job, his wife pregnant and they were living in a condominium that Bill and Drusilla owned in San Diego. Bill arranged for Charles to become manager and operator of a small real estate management company in San Diego that was in deep financial trouble. Charles turned the firm around; eventually bought the company and today owns and operates one of the largest and most successful real estate management companies in San Diego County. Charles has two sons, two stepsons, and one stepdaughter.
At 5′ 11″, Catherine is the “baby” of the family, in name only. After school she married a sailor and spent 2 years in Naples, Italy where her son was born. After coming back to the States, they moved to San Diego and she began work in the real estate management business. Shortly after her daughter was born she divorced. Catherine now has an excellent job working for a large apartment complex in Cardiff by the Sea, California.
Besides being a devoted father, Bill found time to open a property management and real estate brokerage company, in Yuma. He earned the CCIM designation and became known as the leading “creative” real estate broker/entrepreneur in Western Arizona, exchanging, developing and syndicating. Bill became affiliated with the Valley of the Sun and Arizona Exchangors. In 1985 Bill and Chet Allen completed a $13,800,000 three way exchange involving a regional shopping center, a 120-unit apartment, 24 REO SFRs, $4,000,000 in paper and $2,000,000 in cash that won the Campbell Trophy for the Best Commercial Transaction in the USA. It also won Bill the distinction of having created the largest exchange in Arizona history. He opened a management company in Albuquerque New Mexico, where he also developed a manufactured home subdivision.
He built a condo project, converted a motel into an office complex, and brokered numerous transactions. As a principal, he made a massive exchange of land in New Mexico with the BLM. Somewhere along the way he found time to be the co creator of Exchange Maker, an exchange network.
He also gave time to his community, serving in leadership positions in Yuma and its organizations. He is a charter member of the Arizona State 4-H, serving 5 years as a 4 H group leader in photography. He was an originator of the Arizona 4 H Foundation at the University of Arizona and served 5 years as a director and an officer of the Foundation’s Board of Governors. He also served on a number of civic committees in Yuma, Arizona and is a member of The University of Arizona, President’s Club. The priority he put on education and commitment impacted the whole family. “Dad always encouraged his children throughout their schooling. ‘Par’ was not acceptable. It was always understood that higher education was just part of our lives. He encouraged us to finish a job and do it to our best capabilities, no matter what it was; even if it was something we hated doing.” (Laurie Anne)
Bill says that his professional goal was to be the very best at whatever he attempted. Of real estate he says: “Real estate is basic to all lasting wealth. Everything else has some kind of end, but not real estate. Real estate goes on forever and the demand gets greater and greater.” During his career he gave the real estate industry a full measure. His accomplishments include: 1) becoming a Member of The Society; 2) earning the CCIM Designation (#1062); 3) receiving the Campbell Trophy in 1984 for the most outstanding commercial real estate transaction in the United States; 4) being President of his local Board of Realtors; 5) serving as President of the S.E.C. for two years; and 6) helping to organize and being President of the Certified Arizona Exchangors organization (CAE). With all of that, Bill admits a shortcoming. “I never learned how to sell houses! I have sold land, farms, citrus groves, office buildings, apartments, shopping centers, businesses, but I just never could grasp the paperwork required to sell houses.”
Over the years with the Society of Exchange Counselors he was very active, giving a great deal of himself to our organization. Highlights include: Serving on the Board of Governors for eight years, the executive committee for five, and two terms as President of the organization, as well as, auditing the Society’s financial records for years. He was chairman of the committee that established the Cliff Weaver and the Yvonne Nasch Awards. In 1988 he rewrote the Bylaws of the Society; and was honored as Counselor of the Year in 1989. Of the S.E.C. he says: “The S.E.C. changed my life for the better and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity and the experience.”
With so many family and professional commitments its hard to imagine how Bill had time to develop any outside interests, which, he says, include golfing, fishing, flying and recreational reading.
Although not even mentioned by Bill, Drusilla maintains that: “If Bill has a ‘hobby’, I suspect it is photography. He has always taken pictures of the children; we have thousands. But, on trips and during our time in the Parks, taking pictures was important to him.”
Bill didn’t take up flying until he was 50; when he bought the plane first, and then started taking lessons. He became a proficient pilot with both high performance, as well as twin-engine ratings. Flying is perhaps his most loved extra curricular activity. An accomplished pilot, Bill has traveled the Southwest is several planes, including a Seneca, a Mooney, a Cessna 210 and a Bonanza.
Bill loves to play golf. By several accounts, he doesn’t score well, but he wouldn’t miss his weekly game with Chet Allen for anything.
He reads from 3 to 4 books a month about everything, mysteries, biographies, political books. He has a collection of biographies of every president.
Bill and Drusilla currently live in Vista, California, where Bill works with his son, Charles. He enjoys his grandchildren and reputedly attempts to once again break 100 during his weekly golf outing with Chet Allen. Bill says that the most significant event in his life was “finding and marrying my wife of 51 years, along with having six children.” Daughter Laurie Anne observes: “Dad has a real soft heart for his family, animals and babies. He always amazes me when he is holding or talking with (not to) his grandchildren how comfortable, and loving he is. Dad has a real affinity of patriotism for his country, and its history. He would have made an excellent teacher because of his compassion for learning. He was and still is a great teacher in my mind.”
Bill Macbeth, S.E.C, CCIM, is, by anyone’s measure, a success; leaving his mark on nearly every person and institution he comes in contact with; loved by many, admired by all.
