Mel Bisgyer, NYU professor and active volunteer, is dead

Real Estate Weekly, June 28, 2000

Mel Bisgyer, a former instructor at New York University's Real Estate Institute and the chairman of the education committee of the Real Estate Board of New York, died June 13 in Portland, Ore. He was 76.

Born Melvin Bernard Bisgyer in the Bronx, he suffered the loss of his father at age six and was raised by his mother and sister on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He graduated from the Rhodes School, received a bachelor's degree and an MBA from, NYU and served in the Army during World War II.

A generation of mortgage brokers took their first course in the industry from Bisgyer. He taught the basic mortgage finance course at NYU for 25 years.

Among his honors was his elections as "Man of the Year"' by the American Legion's Real Estate and Banking Post. He had been chairman of the Real Estate Board's financial committee, president of the Real Estate Lodge of B'nai B'rith and board member of the Mortgage Bankers Association of YM/WREA.

He was a member of Community Access Inc. for 15 years and participated in the planning and fundraising for numerous projects to provide housing, counseling and training for New York's homeless.

The Real Estate Board honored him with its Ken Gerrety Humanitarian Award for his work with Community Access. In 1984, New York Mayor Edward I. Koch appointed him to the New York City Loft Board.

He retired from Simon Rudd Associates in 1999 and moved to Portland Ito be near his daughtes.

He is survived by three daughters, Marcia Bisgyer Avallone of Rye, N.Y.; Ann Bisgyer of Portland and Susan Bisgyer of Gaston, Ore.; brother, Justin of Lake Worth, Fla.; a sister, Janice Grossman, of New York City and three grandchildren.

Services are tentatively planned for July 24.

In lieu of flowers, tine family suggests donations to the Mel Bisgyer Memorial Fund, C/O Community Access, Inc. 666 Broadway, Third Floor, New York, NY 10012.