The New England/Upstate NY CRE and the Mass Appraisal chapters held a tribute for Charles B. Akerson, CRE Emeritus on June 9th at The Unitarian Church. Akerson was a long-time CRE and MAI appraiser who passed away in April at the age of 86 in Weston, Mass. Over 35 friends and associates met to speak about their lives with Charlie. Charlie's family, including his wife Jean and two daughters, Carol and Mary. Bruce Wiley, an old time friend and business partner, organized the event.
The author of the highly-regarded Appraiser's Workbook, he developed the Akerson Method of Mortgage Equity Capitalization.
Below is the short tribute that Rob Nahigian, as chapter chair, delivered as a representative of the New England/Upstate NY chapter. The tribute was developed with the assistance from CRE National and various chapter members:
"As the New England/Upstate NY Chapter Chair of the Counselors of Real Estate, we would like to extend our sincere condolences to Charlie's family and to thank Bruce Wiley for asking CRE to be a part of this tribute. It is a true honor for our chapter and me.
As many of you know, Charlie held a designation with The Counselors of Real Estate and was considered an icon within our industry and organization. David Kirk, our past national president, once referred to Charlie simply as "a celebrity" and "a really amazing person and a leader in the industry and I never doubted he had a sense of humor."
Nelson Bowes, CRE, who has known Charlie for 41 years, describes Charlie as a person who "takes what he does seriously without taking himself seriously."
Charlie started his career in 1947 in the real estate department of Liberty Mutual and was invited to the counselors in 1966. At the time, there were only 320 members nationally with Charlie eventually becoming a CRE Emeritus. Today there are approximately 1,200 CREs. In 1994, he was elected national vice-president and had served 2 terms as a member of the board of governors. He had also served as a member on the national committees of publications, education and international activities. He was the past national chairman of the government affairs committee and served on the national board of directors. He was also a fellow member of Lambda Alpha International. Charlie also chaired the Mass Highway Real Estate Appraisal board here in Boston, a board that I currently serve on replacing Charlie when he retired. On a personal note, when I was being interviewed for the board, I contacted Charlie about his experiences on the board and his thoughts about my joining. He told me it was a worthwhile appointment, a lot of work but a good public service.
Last week, our review board met and we talked about Charlie's long involvement with the board. One of the Mass Highway appraisers vividly remembers being grilled by Charlie each time he made his valuation presentation and being grilled specifically on his appraisal assumptions. He was moaning about the pain while describing this past. He said, "Charlie was great to have on this Board but you knew you were in for a cross-examination on each appraisal assumption." I then asked the appraiser how he slept at night after the interrogations. He said, "Well, I would sleep like a baby. I would sleep for an hour then wake up thinking about Charlie's questions and I would cry for an hour."
Most importantly, in 2003 Charlie was the recipient of CRE's most prominent and highest award, the John White/John Landauer Award. Both White and Landauer were instrumental in furthering the prestige of the real estate counseling profession and played important roles in the establishment of the Counselor's organization. The award honors an individual who, in word and deed, has furthered the ideals of CRE and its designation. Charlie exemplified and epitomized this award.
On a lighter note, during the Landauer presentation, the CRE national president, Bill Ramseyer, gave an overview of Charlie's career and life history including his 55 years of marriage. Bill stated that he had asked Charlie's wife, Jean, how the 55 year relationship had endured all those years. Jean simply responded, "Well, you've seen him.....he's just soooo cute."

Finally, Charlie was serving as an expert witness on appraisal related matters. Once during a trial, after extensive questioning during which the opposing attorney in the case repeatedly challenged Charlie's opinion, Charlie was asked one final time by this frustrated attorney "Are you absolutely certain on your opinion in this matter?" To which Charlie, calmly, yet firmly replied from the stand, "No one can get closer to my opinion than Charles B. Akerson".
Charlie, in our firmest of opinions you were the best and we will miss you dearly!"