 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shopping Centers Today -> July 2003
 PRINT THIS STORY: |
  CHANGE TEXT SIZE: |
FAMILY BRUNCH CELEBRATES ANOTHER YEAR’S WORK
BY IAN RITTER
 |
| Michael Kercheval and Beth Fisher onstage. |
LAS VEGAS — ICSC honored several longtime volunteers and two former staff members at the annual Family Brunch.
Awards were handed out from a stage crafted to look like an early morning TV talk show set. The hosts were Michael P. Kercheval, ICSC’s president and CEO, and Beth Fisher, a TV news anchor for the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas. A four-piece band provided music.
Among the honorees was Gary D. Rappaport, SCSM, SCMD, CLS, who was ICSC chairman for the 2002-2003 term. Rappaport is also president and CEO of the McLean, Va.-based Rappaport Cos.
Joining Fisher and Kercheval onstage to honor Rappaport were John M. Ingram, vice chairman of The Mills Corp. and an ICSC past chairman (2001-2002), and his wife, Pat.
“I don’t have to describe your year,” Ingram told Rappaport. “That’s public record. It’s been an outstanding year.”
Fisher entertained the audience with some statistics illustrating the sacrifice Rappaport made during his tenure: 1,902 e-mails received while on the road, 96 days traveled, 38 speeches given and 106,293 miles flown, with the longest trip totaling 20,540 miles. Kercheval then presented Rappaport with a large, framed map of the world with lines drawn on it showing where his travels as ICSC chairman had taken him.
“It’s been an experience,” Rappaport said. “It’s been the ride of a lifetime.”
 |
| Esther Herring, CSM, chats with Distinguished Service Award winner Edward Sack, ICSC’s former counsel. |
Also recognized was John T. Riordan, the former president of ICSC, and more recently its vice chairman, who retired last month. ICSC has established the John T. Riordan Professional Educational Scholarship, which will give people in the shopping center industry scholarships to ICSC’s School of Professional Development (see story, Scholarship to fund retail real estate learning).
“John often refers to himself as a schoolteacher gone wrong,” Kercheval said. “But anyone that knows John knows that he is passionate about education.”
This year the Park Bench Award, which honors ICSC past chairmen who have also served a five-year tenure on ICSC’s Executive Committee, went to Drew Alexander, president of Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors. Last year’s Park Bench recipient, Charles B. Lebovitz, chairman and CEO of CBL & Associates Properties, presented the award.
“You don’t volunteer for ICSC because the pay’s great,” Alexander said. “You do it because it’s outstanding work.”
Outgoing ICSC trustees were also recognized, as was outgoing ICSC Western Division Vice President Thomas H. Purcell, CEO of Spring Creek Investors, Newport Beach, Calif.
 | Current Issue November 2008 |