Frederick E. Taylor* began his business career at the age of six as a newsboy in a small Montana frontier town. Ambitious for a university education, he worked on a stock and farm paper until he saved enough money to enter Montana Wesleyan. By the time he was 21 he was state manager of an insurance company with an office in Portland, Oregon.
At first engaged with suburban property, he later became a specialist in business property, and over a long period of years was responsible for a very large portion of larger real estate sales and leases in downtown Portland.
As president of the Portland Realty Board, Mr. Taylor was instrumental in the formation of the Pacific Northwestern Realty Association, whose membership was drawn from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. He became its first president. It was largely through his efforts that one of the first real estate license laws in the United States was adopted in the state of Oregon in 1919.
During the First World War, Mr. Taylor served as a dollar-a-year man in the United States Housing Corporation, for which he handled appraisal and purchase of property in Bremerton, Washington.
As president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, Fred Taylor traveled 28,599 miles and sent out 35,950 letters, or approximately 100 letters a day. In that year board membership of the National Association doubled, seven state associations were formed, and retiring President Taylor welcomed to the national convention an attendance almost triple that of any previous year.
Source: Presidents of the National Association of REALTORS®, (Chicago: NAR, 1980).
*Deceased