In addition, Crocker is founding sponsor and executive-in-residence at DePaul University's real estate center, as well as a member of the Center for Urban Land Economics Research at the University of Wisconsin. Equity Residential chairman Sam Zell credited Crocker with making his REIT "the paradigm of the multifamily industry."

"Doug's leadership is manifest in a number of ways," says Urban Land Institute trustee Gregory W. Hummel. "The growth and success of a number of America's leading real estate investment trusts, the real estate graduate education programs at two of America's leading universities and the activities of the Urban Land Institute, both at the national and local levels."