Longtime BOMA Leader Barbara Harris Dies

LOS ANGELES-Barbara S. Harris, a former president of BOMA Greater Los Angeles who was known as an innovative and tireless real estate professional and who held a number of BOMA posts in her career, has died at the age of 80 after a long battle with cancer. Harris served as president of BOMA Greater Los Angeles from 2002 to 2007, the year in which she was honored with the granting of the Barbara S. Harris Scholarship, presented by BOMA/GLA and the USC Marshall School of Business.

Harris was known as an innovator who was responsible for the first use of the triple-net lease in the Murdock Plaza office building in Los Angeles. She was a Real Property Administrator who shared her expertise in lease escalation methods as a speaker and author of a widely used handbook on the subject. She began her decades-long career in Los Angeles as a property manager for H. C. Beck Co., Arthur Rubloff & Co. and Crocker National Bank, followed by eight years as vice president and COO of Murdock Management Co. in Westwood. Before her retirement in 2006, she was SVP and marketing director for the City Centre Development and its planned five-building Metropolis project in Downtown Los Angeles.

Harris was volunteer Chairman of BOMA/GLA and served on numerous committees in the local organization and for BOMA International. She was general chairman of the 1983 BOMA International Convention in Los Angeles and also served as a member of the BOMA International Finance Committee, the Building Review Service Council and the National Advisory Council and Operating Methods Committee, which she chaired. She also designed and instituted educational courses for BOMA.

Named BOMA International’s Member of the Year in 1983, Harris was appointed chair of BOMA International’s marketing division in 1985 and won the BOMA International President’s Award in 1991. As a member of the advisory board for Commercial Real Estate Women, Los Angeles, she mentored many women in real estate and in 2005 was honored with the CREW-LA Renaissance Award.

The former BOMA/GLA president was a founder of the Ross Minority Program in Real Estate at the University of Southern California, an intensive, executive education and certification program in real estate development and finance that has graduated more than 400 students in its 13 years. She served as the program’s president and as a member of its Advisory Board.

Joseph W. Markling, chairman of the Board of BOMA/GLA and a member of BOMA International’s executive committee, describes Harris as “an extraordinary person, always concerned about the well-being of others.” Markling adds, “She truly was a visionary and will leave a lasting memory in the commercial real estate industry.”

In lieu of flowers and in accordance with Harris’ wishes, donations in her memory may be directed to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, P.O. Box 91840 Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1840 or at www.marf.org.