Frederick “Skip” William Hearn, the senior vice president for MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services who enjoyed career spanning 67 years, died Oct. 5. He was 87.
Hearn announced his intentions to retire from his position at MacKenzie earlier this year and, over the course of nearly seven decades, it is estimated that he successfully concluded more than 10,000 sale and leasing transactions.
Frederick “Skip” William Hearn
When asked what has changed the most over the past 70 years, he simply responded, “Everything.”
Hearn was destined to enter the commercial brokerage industry. His grandfather, B. Franklin Hearn, and his father, B. Franklin Hearn Jr., were long-time residential real estate brokers in Baltimore County.
Though Hearn never met his grandfather, he heard countless stories about B. Franklin’s work from his father, who functioned as vice president of Roland Park Realty, a prominent firm that worked primarily in the Guilford and Roland Park areas. With a family so involved in real estate, there was never a question about Skip’s career path following his graduation from Duke University, especially after he helped around the office during his summer breaks.
After working with his father for several years, Hearn shifted to W.H.C. Wilson & Co. for a time, before changing his career aspirations slightly upon joining Kornblatt & Fenniman as a commercial office broker.
Following the path of other entrepreneurs and high-achievers, Hearn’s next step was founding his own brokerage firm, Hearn & Knott, in the mid-1960s, together with his brother Beau and partner Joseph Knott. The group, which focused on uptown Baltimore, later joined O’Connor & Flynn as its commercial office division. MacKenzie & Associates, Inc., now The MacKenzie Companies, executed a merger with the entity (then known as O’Conor, Piper & Flynn) in 1992 and Hearn became an integral part of the company.
