Elsner, Former Realty Board President, Dies

James B. Elsner, a prominent Southland industrial realtor and past president of the Los Angeles Board of Realtors and the Southern California chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, has died at the age of 60.

He was the senior partner and president of the J. W. Lewis Co., Cerritos, which he joined in 1954. A UCLA graduate, he was an officer in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, serving on a minesweeper.

He died of bone marrow cancer June 2. He is survived by his mother, May Elsner; two sons, Thomas James Elsner, 23, and Edward James Elsner, 22, and by three sisters and a brother: Maxine Nulton, Nancy Elsner, Jacquelyn Thenn and Andrew Elsner.

He was vice president of the California Assn. of Realtors in 1972 and was the recipient of three of the Southland’s most prestigious realty honors: The Roy C. Seeley Award (1977), the William May Garland Award (1978) and the Fred W. Marlow Award (1967).

With Jack G. Helm he was co-author of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors’ “Standards of Ethical Practice.”

Veteran industrial real estate broker Ronald H. Bloom of Crown Associates Realty Inc. credited Elsner with speaking out against real estate associations that discriminated against Jews and Catholics, among other groups, long before such frankness was common.

“If Jim (Elsner) had any enemies in the business, it was probably because they were not doing the right thing,” Bloom said. “He (Elsner) was probably the foremost expert in all areas, from marketing to ethics, that the (industrial realty) business has ever seen. We’ve lost a good friend.”

A fellow past president of the L.A. Board of Realtors, Gary Herman Sr. of S.D. Herman Co., said that Elsner was one of the most respected and liked people in the California real estate industry.

Memorial donations may be made to “Special Cancer Fund,” Hospital of the Good Samaritan, Cancer Research, 616 S. Witmer St., Los Angeles 90017, attention Amy De Blaise.