Rebecca Menendez

Rebecca Menendez received the 1983 George F. Richardson Award from BOMA Atlanta.

The following narrative was published in a 1983 “BOMA Awards” letter from F. Burt Vardeman, RPA, to the BOMA Atlanta membership. Burt was served as 1983 BOMA Atlanta Awards Committee Chair.

“The George F. Richardson Award may be presented annually to any member within BOMA Atlanta for outstanding achievement in or contribution to BOMA and to the office building industry during the immediate preceding year. While sustained and continuous service is recognized by another award, it is the intent of this award to acknowledge significant service to BOMA in a single year. Election for this award is by majority vote of the Board of Directors.

“The recipient of the George F. Richardson Award for 1983 was born in Selma, Alabama. She attended Erie Commercial College in Pennsylvania and majored in Accounting. She married in Erie and had her first child, Robin, there. Subsequently another daughter, Reagan, was born. She and her husband, George and daughter Reagan now live in Lithonia, Georgia.

“She began in commercial real estate and property management in 1977. She has recently joined the Landmarks Group as a property manager with responsibility for some 530,000 square feet of office space.

“She has been quite active in civic and community affairs as well as an outstanding participant in BOMA. She has been a member of the BOMA Atlanta Board of Directors and is presently serving her second consecutive two-year term. She served as Program Chairman for two successive years bringing a high level of prestige and quality to that very visible area of our activities, the splendid programs presented during that time.

“She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Building Owners and Managers Institute (International). She is President-Elect of DeKalb Clean and Beautiful; a Board Member of Arts in South DeKalb and of DeKalb South, Inc.; and Vice President of DeKalb Housing Counseling, Inc.

“Her most significant and notable community accomplishment has been her work with the DeKalb County Police Department “Invest in a Vest” Program where she led a campaign and raised nearly $100,000 to buy bullet proof vests for every DeKalb county police officer.

“Her most valuable service to BOMA was probably in 1982 where she served as our representative at fire code hearings before the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners. Due to her persistent hard work in behalf of BOMA, the Commission voted to modify the proposed new fire code and delete a requirement that would have caused all commercial buildings over 10,000 square feet to retrofit with sprinklers throughout. This alone would have been sufficient achievement to earn her the George F. Richardson Award – but this coupled with the great mix of BOMA and civic involvement made her a stand out above any other candidate.”

The Atlanta Jornal published a news brief about Rebecca titled, “Woman has raised $30,000 for bullet-proof vests for DeKalb police force” in its February 10, 1981, issue. The news brief says, “When DeKalb County police officer Tom Gober was shot and killed in the line of duty last year, Rebecca Menendez was angered. So much so that she organized a drive that has netted $30,000 of its $80,000 goal to equip all 420 DeKalb police with bullet-proof vests.”