Shown is Shari Marquis, Mass. Assn. of Realtors 1996 Realtor of the Year and David Bradley, 1985 president of the Mass. Assn. of Realtors.

Shown are Paula Savard, president of the Mass. Assn. of Realtors; Tom Marquis, Greater Boston Real Estate Board 1987 Realtor of the Year; and Norm Flynn, president of the National Assn. of Realtors.

Shown are the Marquis Real Estate team in 1992.

Shown are Shari and Tom Marquis at Tom’s installation as regional vice president to National Assn. of Realtors in 1995.

Shown (from left) are: Rolly Hopkins, founder of the New England Real Estate Journal; Denise Boudrot Hopkins, Suffolk Downs Hall of Fame jockey; Tom and Shari Marquis.

Shown are Gil (1984 Mass. Assn. of Realtors president and 1985 National Assn. of Realtors president) and Peggy Wood with Shari and Tom Marquis.

Plymouth, MA What are the percentage chances of winning one of these awards in a lifetime? A million to one? A thousand to one? A hundred to one? Very slim we would all agree. But wait a minute. In 1987 Tom Marquis was named Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s Realtor of the Year – the board ranked second in the USA. He was also chosen as the Realtor of the Year for the Mass. Assn. of Realtors that same year.

Tom was born in Greenfield, Mass. in 1945. He went on to graduate from Newton High School in 1963, then attended Dartmouth College, and served four years in the U.S. Air Force. Tom became interested in medicine, and became a physician’s assistant in Hanover, N.H. and later in Falmouth, Mass.

Enter, soon to be wife, Shari born in Billings, Montana and graduated from nursing school in Hartford in 1967. They dated for two years and were married in New Britain, Conn. January 8, 1972. They then moved to Falmouth, Mass. and started a family with a daughter Cara in 1973 and Tracy in 1976.

Tom’s uncle George owned a very large successful real estate company in Brighton, Mass. In 1974 Tom’s family moved to Brighton and Tom went to work for George’s firm. Shari worked at Tufts Medical Center.

In 1975 Tom took over management of George’s company, and in 1977 purchased it.

In 1975 Shari got her real estate license in order to help Tom. She was also bringing up their children. In 1982 they moved to Duxbury, Mass. In 1983 Tom became president of the Boston Rental Housing Assn., and in 1985 he became president of the Boston Real Estate Board. In 1987 he became regional vice president of the Mass. Assn. of Realtors. And that year was also named Realtor of the Year. In 1990 he was named president of the Mass. Assn. of Realtors.

Shari now began to get more interested and involved.

In 1995 Tom became regional vice president of the National Assn. of Realtors, and Tom and Shari opened an office in Plymouth, Mass.

In 1996 Shari was named Realtor of the Year by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and by the Mass. Assn. of Realtors. She went on to become president of the Greater Boston Association in 2000.

In 2000 they opened an office in Duxbury, and in 2001 purchased offices in Wareham and Buzzards Bay.

In 2006 they sold all their offices to GMAC Home Services, and Tom decided to retire to become his own sailboat captain on Cape Cod and Florida.

Shari, who now had real estate brokerage in her blood, went to work with Coldwell Banker in Plymouth.

Husband and wife voted Realtors of the Year? Impossible. Could never happen. No chance. But it did happen right in our backyard. Congrats to Tom and Shari.

Roland Hopkins is the founder of the New England Real Estate Journal, Norwell, Mass.