El Toro Man Elected to High Builders Post

HOUSTON — Dale Stuard of Stuard Industries Inc., El Toro, was elected vice president/secretary of the National Assn. of Home Builders at the 41st annual convention of the organization here last week. He ran unopposed and will, in the normal course of events, become the association’s president in 1988.

Tallahassee, Fla., builder John J. Koelemij was elected 1985 president, succeeding Peter D. Herder of Tucson. David C. Smith of McDowell, Va., was elected first vice president, and James M. Fischer Jr., Nashville, was elected vice president/treasurer.

At a press conference on the last day of the convention, Koelemij said that while the lack of opposition for the vice president/secretary post was not typical, it was not unprecedented.

“I ran for office once and was defeated,” he said. A native of the Netherlands, Koelemij (pronounced “kool-am-I”) is the first foreign-born president of the 130,000-member trade association.

Stuard is a past president of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Assn. of California and served as national vice president of the National Assn. of Home Builders in 1977-79, representing California and Hawaii.

Other Californians named to posts with the national association include Randall L. Smith, president of R. L. Smith Development Co., Berkeley, national vice president for California and Hawaii, and Robert B. McLeod, president of Genstar Southwest Development, re-elected to the board as a representative of the Building Industry Assn. of San Diego County.