In Memoriam

We're very sorry to report the passing of long-time members, William Harps and Bruce Reyle. Both were strong contributors to the association and great friends to the appraisal community.

Bruce William Reyle

Business Owner/Real Estate Appraiser

Bruce William Reyle, 78, a local businessman who established a real estate appraisal company in Fairfax City in 1971, died at Arden Courts Assisted Living Facility on August 27, 2009 after a severe head injury.

Bruce graduated from Duke University in 1952 with a BA degree in economics followed by an MBA from American University in 1959. He was awarded the SRA (1970) and SRPA (1972) designations from the Society of Real Estate Appraisers (SREA) and held the MAI designation with the Appraisal Institute at the time of his retirement in 2001. He served as the President of the Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter of the SREA in 1977-78. He also served on the City of Fairfax Tax Equalization Board, the Fairfax Center City Commission and the Board of Directors, Fairfax County Vocational Education Foundation. He was previously employed at Acacia Mutual Life Insurance Company as an Assistant Vice President, Mortgage Loans and held the rank of Captain in the United States Air Force Reserve. He was an active member and home group leader of Truro Church in Fairfax.

Bruce is survived by his cherished wife of 55 years, Barbara Fritz Reyle, a son John of Fairfax (current president of AIDC), a daughter Joan residing in Beaufort, SC, six grandchildren, one great grandson, his sister Beverly Noon and brother Jack as well as many treasured friends.

William Harps
Had Bill Harps been a richer youth, he might not be the man that he is today.
Harps came from Philadelphia to study chemistry at Howard University. But as graduation loomed, he realized that he would need a Ph.D. to be taken seriously as a chemist. Harps had come to Howard at the height of the depression. Although he had an academic scholarship, he had to wait tables nights and weekends to pay for room and board. There was no way he could afford graduate school.

Then a friend introduced Harps to John R. Pinkett, who owned the leading real-estate firm in the black community. In 1939 Pinkett hired young Bill Harps as a property manager and salesman. With Pinkett's blessing, Harps studied real-estate appraising in 1950. He felt he finally had found his niche. Like chemistry, real estate appraising requires a lot of mathematics.

His timing couldn't have been better. The federal government had begun the redevelopment of Southwest DC and was selling land to developers. Harps was one of seven appraisers selected to value the property; he appraised 27 blocks in Southwest slated for development.

After 44 years of working for Pinkett, Harps left to start Harps & Harps in 1983. The other Harps was Bill's son Richard.

Over the years Bill Harps has acted as a real-estate appraiser/consultant to major banks and corporations, including Prudential, Mobil, IBM, Pepco, and Bank of America. He also has lectured on appraising in universities across the country and was an instructor at American University.

One of his proudest accomplishments is that he integrated the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers in 1960 by convincing the membership that he should be admitted. "Some of the members said I'd get in over their dead bodies," Harps recalls. "They're all dead now."

Harps worked hard on AIRE committees and moved up in the organization. "I used to get angry but I never let it show," he says. He was elected president of the institute in 1980. In 1976, he was named president of the Washington Board of Realtors.

Harps credits John Pinkett, his teachers, his colleagues, and his wife Justine for contributing to his success.
"Everybody has to be helped by somebody," he says. "Nobody makes it alone."