John Cushman Jr.; Commercial Real Estate Broker
John Clydesdale Cushman Jr., a nationally known commercial real estate broker, has died at age 86.
Cushman died Monday in Lake San Marcos, Calif., where he had lived since 1981.
Scion of the founding family of Cushman & Wakefield, one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate brokerage firms, Cushman took his own place in the New York-based company in 1936 after attending Amherst College and Fordham Law School.
He rose to executive vice president, secretary and director but never ran the company founded by his father and uncle, John C. Cushman and Bernard Wakefield. Edged out by the Peters brothers, Leone, Anthony and Vincent, Cushman left in 1964 to form J.C. Cushman Inc.
Cushman and his progeny remained very much in the realty business. Until his death, he was president and director of D.A. Cushman Realty Corp., a New York real estate ownership and management firm founded in 1830 by his great-great-grandfather, Don Alonzo Cushman. His twin sons, John C. Cushman III and Louis Blauvelt Cushman, also joined and then left Cushman & Wakefield. John formed the highly successful Cushman Realty, which leases most of the commercial space in downtown Los Angeles. Louis serves as head of the company’s Houston office.
John Cushman Jr. served during his long tenure in New York as a director of Windsor Life Insurance Co., director of 9th Federal Savings & Loan Assn., director and president of the Lexington First Avenue Assn., governor and secretary of the Real Estate Board of New York, and governor of the Army Navy Club of New York. He was also an active supporter of the United Fund of West Essex County in New Jersey and the Visiting Nurse Assn. in San Diego.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Florence Blauvelt Cushman; his twin sons, John C. III of Pasadena and Louis of Houston; son David of Glendale, and eight grandsons, two granddaughters and one great-grandson.
The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the San Marcos High School Scholarship Fund to support a member of its golf team.
