John Theodore Rind

John Theodore Rind was born to Bonnie B. and John Wesley Rind in St. Louis, Oklahoma on August 22, 1934 and passed to be with the Lord Our Savior on July 29, 2014 , just a few days short of his 80th birthday in Plano, Texas. Johnny, as his young classmates in Colbert, Oklahoma called him, started his great journey in small-town Oklahoma helping his mother run a small grocery store after his father passed away when Johnny was 8 years old. He met the love of his life, Shirley Varner, in the third grade and thus began a love story that spanned over 70 years. He graduated from Colbert High School (class of '53), where he was a star basketball player. John then enrolled at the University of Oklahoma to study Engineering where he married his sweetheart, Shirley, in 1955 after his sophomore year. John met many lifelong friends while matriculating at OU and was also active in the Army ROTC and the Sigma Nu Fraternity while in Norman. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1958. The journey continued as he joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland as a Lieutenant in the Power Train Branch of the U.S. Army Ordnance School. John received an Honorable Discharge after completion of his reserve obligation in 1964. While in the Army John and Shirley were blessed with their first child, Craig, born in 1959 in Maryland. He was then hired by Alcoa Aluminum as a Sales Engineer in 1960. His sales career with Alcoa spanned 16 years and the Rinds called many places home during that time including Rome, NY , Lubbock, TX, Oklahoma City, OK, Portland, OR, Sunnyvale, CA, Richardson, TX and San Mateo, CA. During this trek across the U.S. John and Shirley were blessed again with their second child, Cheryl, who was born in Oklahoma City in 1962 He concluded his career with Alcoa in 1976 as the Western U.S. Regional Sales Manager for Alcoa Conductor in the Burlingame, CA office. John was always fascinated with real estate and upon his retirement from Alcoa he embarked on an exciting venture into the business of commercial real estate where he and Shirley moved their family back home to Texas and John joined Coldwell Banker Commercial in Dallas as a commercial broker in 1977. John immediately vaulted to top producer status for many years and became known around Dallas, along with his partner Larry Casey, as deal makers for large projects such as The Quorum development in Addison, The Dunphy Hotel redevelopment on NW Hwy, The Kirby Building downtown and the Exxon Building on Stemmons, just to name a few. In 1983 Rind and Casey later teamed up with Gordon Foster and Gary Lindsey and founded the Dallas-based powerhouse commercial brokerage Casey Rind Foster Lindsey Inc. that specialized in office, industrial and land brokerage during the real estate boom of the mid 1980's. After a very successful run the CRFL partnership dissolved and John returned to the now rebranded CB Commercial Real Estate Group in 1989 where John helped in the company's transition back to private ownership in the Dallas region as Executive Vice President-Area Manager for CB. He retired from the real estate business in September of 1994 but continued to consult and mentor brokers with CB (now known as CBRE, Inc.) for many years. His retirement allowed him to spend the last 20 years of his life playing golf and spending time with Shirley, Cheryl, Craig, his son-in-law, Tim Swearingen, and his 3 grandkids, Cole and Mattie Swearingen and John L. Rind. He and Shirley were seen many times roaming the soccer and football fields and basketball courts of Plano to watch his grandkids play. Everyone knew him as "Papa". His journey with Shirley can, once again, be described as a true love story. He will be missed by all. A memorial service will be held at 2pm Monday, August 4, 2014 at Christ United Methodist Church at the corner of Parker and Coit in Plano. In lieu of flowers please make a donation to the CUMC Memorial Fund.