Definition of Opinion:  A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.

Please be respectful to others with differing opinions. 

Earl Harris III

Ron,

Thank you for sharing your gift with us. It was very upifting. What a wonderful memory you have of your dad. I hope that you will find the time to share other stories with us.

Frank Wiley

Ron, Your Dad would be Proud of you and was Proud of you.  It's obvious that his lessons inspired you by the way you live your life!'!  Thanks for sharing but you mentioned it was 40 years ago and you were 10 years old.  I know you feel young but that was 60+ years ago.  Oh well!

Bill RIHS

Ron, thanks for sharing your great letter and inspiration for all. I am sure your dad was a good man, husband and father as your letter discribes.

Jim Coats

Ron.  THANK YOU for posting your letter to your Pop.  It was sweet...real...and it 100% got to me.  That's the kind of "look back" that is healthy and good for the soul.  Your Pop knows he is not forgotten.

Bill RIHS

After thinking and memory responses, Penningtons owned Cotinental Homes. Hancock had Cavalier homes. I get mixed up on who owned what. Anyone really remember who owned what?😎

 

Jim Coats

Bill.  It looks like you're right, but I would have sworn that Bill Pennington's Dad was #2 in Cavalier Homes.  Memory sure fades.  

Michael Wetzel

Ron,                                                                                                                                                                             Excellent, wonderful post. Thank you....

Out of four years in the WH, biden took 577 ( 39% ) days of vacation. Thats almost a year and a half of his total days in office. Even when he was in office, at the WH, he had zero thoughts of what his actual duties were as president. His handlers prepared all of his work for him. So, I know while on vacation, he mind was totaly blank, empty. This from a guy, who could not even locate the entrance door to the WH. Who fell each and everytime trying ( sometimes multiple times ) to mount the stairs upon entering an aircraft... I wonder just how many millions and millions, it cost us, the taxpayers to pay for his vacations ! .... This is the man, that the socialist, still wet their nightie tidies, at night for............

Bill RIHS

Jim, now I am questioning if Bill's dad owned or was running the business. I can't even remember his dad's name. I just called Mr. Pennington. Memory sucks😩.

DeWitt Bacon

I'm confused. Is Katy leaving the forum or not? She has announced her leaving before but keeps bouncing back. I don't think she can ever leave. She is too strongly opinionated. Most of her talking points come straight out of the lies of the left-wing news. Rachel Madcow and her are so far to the left of Stalin that they believe anyone to the right of that is fascist. Yes, lately, I have enjoyed trying to throw some truth her way, but, of course, she keeps firing back with her quips. It's like playing a fun game with her. I win. You lose. lol

I guess I don't have to worry about her reading this. After all, she has left the forum. Right?

DeWitt Bacon

Quote of the day:

“I’ve got a lot of friends that are Democrats, and they have never asked me for advice. But if they did, I would tell them, look, you just got to try harder not to suck...”

Sen. John Kennedy on Hannity

Lester Cox

Gem Pennington was president of Continental homes. It was basically owned and controlled by Charlie Keating. But Gem ran the company day to day. I think Gem started at Staggs built home, Ralph Staggs was the owner. I met both of those guys, really did not know them well. Early on in my career, I was with Walker and Lee of Arizona, a company based in California. I had about 10 to 12 builders that I ran sales for. I was also VP of sale for Presley when we started and built Ahwatukee and after that I went to Suggs homes where I convinced them to buy a parcel I was aware of and we developed a new line of product and my wife and I sold the entire 373 home subdivision in one year. I knew most of the old line guys, Staggs, Presley, Marlborough, Knoell, Bradley and Suggs to name a few. Bill Pennington worked in sales at Continental. 

Bill RIHS

Thanks Lester, I stand corrected, bad memory😢. Was Gene Handcock Cavilier's Homes owner? Anyone remember Greg Handcock, pitcher I played baseball with at Camelback? He had an older brother I can't remember his name, pitched at ASU and played a few years in the pros. Did you know the Suggs and Bradley guys? They built great homes. My first home was a Suggs home in Tempe.

Lester Cox

I knew Elmer Bradley. Elmer, Tom Owen's from Suggs and Knoell folks used to meet every week at a pirate place around Baseline and Rural for coffee and to discuss who would build here and there. They really controlled most development of Tempe. Greg Hancock came to work at Suggs in about 1980. Not sure how long he was there. I left Suggs in 1978 and my wife stayed to finish off our tract. She was actually the number one sales person nationwide in 1978 for US Homes, which owned Suggs by then. Gene Hancock did do Hancock homes. Del Trailor was another good old time builder. Ralph Staggs was a real character. Ellis Suggs was still coming to the office in 1978 but Tom Owens was really running the show by then. Very interesting times, lots of fun being around all these guys. If my memory serves me correctly Gene Hancock started Cavalier and later changed to Hancock homes. Allied and Cox homes were a couple other players. I think that was Gene Cox, no relation. Also, the California builder invasion started with Presley, Marlborough, Ponderosa and Mission Viejo who co-developed the Lakes with El Paso Natural Gas. 

Lester Cox

Hey Bill, I also owned a couple Suggs homes and yes, they were a great builder in their day. In Tempe, starter home was Knoell, move up to Suggs and top off with Bradley. I think I paid like $82K for a Regency in 1978, Southern and Price. Tempe Royal Palms 15. The subdivision I did with them was Southern Palms at Southern and Hardy. 

Jim Coats

Bill.  SKIP HANCOCK.  I don't think he had much of a career in the "Bigs."

What about a Gary Gentry, a pitcher, who graduated from CHS in '64 I think and won a game for the Mets in '69 World Series.

Those were the days.  I used to hit Greg Hancock like batting practice in Pony League, or whatever it was called.

P.S.  My Dad met Del Webb when he was a carpenter.

Lester Cox

Jim, you've jogged my memory a bit more. I think it was Skip who came to work at Suggs. As I recall, not too well liked, a bit arrogant and did not treat people that well, at least that was what I was told, as I had already left that company. 

Bill RIHS

Lester, obviously you were intrenched in the home building business. My first home, '76 in Tempe Suggs home at George Drive and Sourhern. It's just east of the 101 now. There was/is a mix of Suggs And Bradley homes mixed in our neighborhood.

Jim, Skip! You got it! Gary Gentry, played him too and  never thought he Was that good, he really was!. He was a Workd Series winning pitcher with the Mets. It's fun trying to bring those memories back.

Bill Randall

   Did anyone deal with Sam Wise of Universal Homes, office was at 24th St. & Indian School? Tom Cole was his grandson, attended Camelback 60 to 62. My Dad did most of his masonary work thru Robert Bradley (36th St & Cambridge). Sam developed homes around 40th & Montecito to 38th[the old Douglas Mansion area]. Guy Apple bought-out Sam in the 70's. That was when Bradley folded, selling to C. Sandoz. Sandoz was the masonary for John F. Long of Maryvale. That allow Sandoz to build up his company for doing the masonary at Sun City. I worked 2 summers[59 & 61] for my Dad, telling me to find a some other type of occupation. 

Frank Wiley

Gary Gentry pitched on the Phoenix College Baseball team in 1966 when they won the National Championship.   He and Tom Burgess were the two best.  ASU grabbed Gary and he pitched for the Sun Devils 1967 Championship team with Dave Grangaard.  Gary was drafted by the Mets and yes he did win game 3 of the '69 World Series. He then went to Atlanta and pitched for a year or two.  I remember that World Series very well because that was the first one I got to watch in a couple of years after coming home from Vietnam.  I really enjoyed it.  I used to play a lot of slow pitch soft ball and played against Skip Hancock a couple times at Pierce Park across from Thomas Mall on the south side.  I didn't know any of the old time builders but in the early 80's went to work for a builder in Flagstaff and then went to work for Robson at Sun Lakes for 20 years.  I talked to Greg Hancock a couple of times at the Homebuilders annual awards banquet.

Jim Coats

When I worked at the "then" Arizona Bank that eventually became Bank of America, we had an annual "touch" football game Thanksgiving morning at Pierce Park in the mid to late 70's.  Thanks for jogging my memory, Frank.

The game was younger bankers....some bank officers and some not....playing against the young lawyers from Ryley, Carlock and Ralston who represented the bank.  Many of the lawyers were previous college athletes who considered themselves studs and most of us were not college athletes...but we grew up on the mean streets.

I mentioned that the game was touch football, right?  2 hands above the waist.  It remained "touch" football for about, oh, I don't know, about 2 plays and then it devolved into full contact, Ninja tackle football.  Our toughest guy was my best friend,  Big John Donovan.  6'4", 210 lbs of muscle, gristle and bone and he was on the line against Ed Hiner, a former college rugby player probably in his mid-30's, and a killer.  When the ball was snapped, the next sound heard was those two colliding with the sound of a thump and lots of growling.  I think the sound could be heard at Thomas Mall.

It seemed like every Thanksgiving morning game day it was COLD and the ground was almost frozen and hard.  We were wearing t-shirts, shorts and sneakers (no pads) and two consecutive years, we had one player knocked out cold for a minute.  I sprained my ankle pretty bad one year...went to the sideline...grabbed a very cold can of Coors out of our ice chest, Ace bandaged the can (intact) to my ankle to keep the (considerable) swelling down and went back in.

I don't think we kept score.  We just quit at one point.  Those were good days.

DeWitt Bacon

All this talk about home builders has got me thinking about John F. Long. After we were married, my wife and I started looking at homes. We looked at some lower-cost John F. Long homes and found one we thought we could afford but would need help with the down payment. We went to my dad to ask him if he would help. When he heard it was a John F. Long home, he read us the riot act. He was in construction and knew what he was talking about. He told us to look at some older Long homes and see how run down they looked after only a few years. Besides that, dad was a strong union man, and Long was non-union; what's more, they used Chinese parts that you could not find replacements for in the hardware store. So that ended that. We rented for a few years until we could find a suitable home. Dad passed away before that, but I think he would have approved.

Lester Cox

Bill, I remember those homes well, yes, Suggs and Bradley. My sister in law and her husband lived in a Bradley in that same neighborhood. I remember Universal homes, I don't recall knowing anyone from that company and I don't think they stayed around long. John F Long, good guy, did a lot for the community, but built pretty crappy entry level homes. I represented Presley homes at 83rd Ave and Indian School so we were in heads up competition. Presley at least built with 2 by 4's. I think Long did a lot of 2 by 3 construction. Maryvale is his legacy. I actually won the very first MAME award given by the home builders association. First year, first award given. It was from marketing excellence in a condo project I was building in Arizona City. First condos ever built in Pinal County and had to educate the planning commission and board of supervisors on what a condo was. Ed Robson who built Sun Lakes is and was a pretty good guy to work with. Built pretty good quality stuff. He was partners with the guy who did Pinewood in Munds Park. They just kind of split the sheets, Ed took Sun Lakes and other guy, whose name escapes me too Pinewood. We tried to sell Arizona City to Ed but he was not a taker. Sun Lakes is a great community and great legacy to Ed. Pierce park...when I met my wife, she actually live just down the street from Pierce park and we would take walks over there while the washing machines were getting laundry done. Oh the days of carrying clothes to the laundry room or laundromat, how I miss those. NOT. One thing that for some reason stands out in my mind is that no young person, will ever know how we would just drive to the airport, park the car, walk about 300 feet and we are seated on the plane we're about to fly on to our destination. No security. And then the guy who put the poison in Tylenol capsules in the 70's, he will be responsible for many of us starving to death because we can't get the frigging package open to eat the food we bought. I'm sure he's rotting in hell now. Thanks all for the memory jogs. 

Frank Wiley

Ed Robson worked for Del Webb as a Vice President.  The reason he did Pinewood was because when he decided to start building he couldn't in the Valley because he had signed a non-compete clause with Del Webb.  He couldn't start a Company within 100 miles.  When the non-compete expired he started opitioning the farm land that Sun Lakes sits on.  Knowing that it would take years to develop he did a couple genius things.  He locked up the water rights and he talked the cotton farmers into lease the land back from him to continue farming it until he was ready to start pushing dirt.  For the first three years there was no daily home mail delivery so Ed talked the Post Office to come out and do a community mail call.  One of Ed's best friends was Eddie Basha and Ed talked him into opening a convenience store which was called "The Busy B."  (B for Bashas).  Although numerous Grocery Chains approached Ed in the following years when they knew Sun Lakes was a success, Ed would not allow any of them in as a thank you to Eddie Basha for the Busy B.    Ed was a Great employer and very loyal to his employees!

Ron Hendrix

Look up Gary Gentry's/ASU's greatest game ever.  Google  "Gary Gentry's Gem" Worth the read.  Also, Greg Hancock still building homes in Chandler. RH

Bill Randall

 Hancocks lived on the NE corner of 38th St. & Glenrosa, next to them was Brad West (class of 64). The Hancocks had  a deep swimming pool that helped while jumping from their Sundeck. Then just North of the Hancocks lived Bob Klim on Montecito, with Tom Smith across the street. Driving thru that old neigborhood is a big challenge, all those homes are completely changed, filling their lots. Many having the old house torn down, except for one wall and adding large rooms. Bob Klim delivered the morning papers in our area, and when his folks would vacation, I got to do his route, with the Circle K on 40th St. as our pick-up point. Sunday's paper required 2 trips. The "stuff" one starts to recall as you Guys write about those past days, thanks for the "jump-Start". Hoping to go to Bill Pennington's on Saturday.