Real Estate Vet Frederick ‘Skip’ Hearn Retires After 67-Year Career

“There is nothing really left to accomplish. Nearly 70 years is quite a journey that not many can replicate,” Hearn told Commercial Observer. “I’m looking forward to having no set plans, not having to get up and be somewhere every day, and also relaxing and spending time with family.”

While many would disagree, Hearn feels and recognizes he was not a “huge spectacular broker,” but he had a product type, stuck with it and worked hard. He completed many transactions on the smaller-user side of the industry, which was his specialty market.

“I made a good living doing it this way and never wanted to chase bigger deals,” he said.  “My favorite thing was having the opportunity to work with multiple people across varying industries and different building types. I liked the activity and the variety of the transactions I was involved in.”

Hearn noted he was destined to join the industry, as his father and grandfather both had long careers as residential brokers in Baltimore County.

During his career, Hearn has worked at Roland Park Realty, W.H.C. Wilson & Co., and Kornblatt & Fenniman, eventually founding his own brokerage, Hearn & Knott, in the mid-1960s, together with his brother Beau and partner Joseph Knott. That entity joined forces with O’Connor & Flynn as its commercial office division, which merged with MacKenzie in 1992. 

MacKenzie has been Hearn’s home for more than three decades, and he noted he will miss the camaraderie of the people he has worked with day to day.

“My career never seemed like work to me, because I loved engaging with people, learning new things and solving a particular problem,” he said in a statement. “Building and maintaining relationships, getting to know people and businesses on an intimate basis and illustrating passion for the client are still the most important elements for success.”

He feels the company is left in good hands and looks forward to seeing where it goes from here. 

“It’s going to continue to succeed — it has a solid foundation with strong leadership,” he said, noting that Brendan Gill, the next generation, is the new president.

Scott Wimbrow, president and principal of MacKenzie, said Hearn’s presence around the office will be missed.

“Skip always joked that he primarily leased small-sized office spaces, but, at the same time, those leases added up to thousands of successful transactions over the years, many happy landlords and an extremely rewarding career,” Wimbrow said in the statement. “We are really going to miss seeing and working with him.”   

Update: This story originally misattributed source material. This has been corrected. We apologize for the error.

Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.