Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 25, 1995 TAG: 9501250064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Flora managed to keep a low profile throughout his nearly 50 years in the real estate business, and that's the way he liked it.
``I'm an inside person,'' Flora once said.
Flora was regarded highly by everyone who knew him, said Jimmy Trinkle, a longtime competitor of Flora's at C.W. Francis & Son.
``He didn't make a lot of noise,'' Trinkle said, but ``he was one of the best in the business.''
In 1988, when Flora was honored as Realtor of the Year, Gary Flora described his father as the kind of man who would make a donation to a cause, but do it anonymously.
Carl Flora graduated from National Business College and joined a national CPA firm in 1936. Ten years later, he went to work with the real estate firm started by his father, Charles, and his brother, C. Cecil Flora. He served as secretary/treasurer of the company and managed the office affairs, while the others were more active in sales.
In May 1982, Carl Flora and Don Peery merged their two real estate firms to form Peery & Flora Ltd.
The heads of the two firms owned side-by-side lots on Virginia 419. After each tried to by the other's lot, someone suggested they pull their business efforts together. Carl Flora became president and treasurer of the new firm; Peery became vice president and secretary.
Flora said he thought the arrangement was ideal, because Peery was the ``salesman type,'' which allowed Flora to stay where he liked it best - behind the scenes.
Flora also served as president of the board of Realtors in 1952, helped organize the Multiple Listing Service and was an early developer at Smith Mountain Lake.
by CNB