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| $800,000 BEQUEST BY IRVIN H. YACKNESS TO EXTEND HIS AND COLLEGE'S LEGACY |
BY CHRIS HENNING
If you build it, the saying goes, they will come. The trick is to keep them coming. Time and again, Irvin H. Yackness, ’41, has done just that, preserving more than a field’s worth of dreams along the way.
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Dr. June G. Yackness and Irvin H. Yackness
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“Private home ownership is a very important and vital aspect of the American dream,” he says, “and to further that opportunity was certainly one of my compelling reasons for a half-century of work as general counsel to the residential building industry.”
Like so many DCL alumni, Yackness faced the necessity of working full time while pursuing a law degree. That he could do so at DCL motivated him and his late wife, Dr. June Goldin Yackness, to give back to the college that he feels gave him so much. Their planned gift—a bequest of $700,000 for the law college’s building endowment and $100,000 to fund the Irvin H. Yackness and June G. Yackness Real Property Award—merges a lifetime of land development and residential construction law practice with his wife’s shared commitment. Today, their gift meets at the intersection of the law college’s past and future, at a time when alumni are being encouraged to embrace a shared vision for the college that has already transformed so many lives.
His sheepskin barely in hand, fresh out of the halls of academia, and before getting a chance to practice law, Yackness enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a deck officer and legal officer to the nation’s amphibious forces in the Pacific during World War II. Soon after his term of service ended, others enlisted him. In 1951, he was retained by the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Southeastern Michigan. Primarily, he negotiated collective bargaining agreements with the major building trade unions, quickly emerging as a highly perceptive, diplomatic and dynamic executive. Subsequently, he was appointed BIA’s executive vice president and general counsel, followed by a similar appointment to the Apartment Association of Michigan.
In the late 80s, Yackness financed the construction of the building that serves as headquarters for the two associations, through the sale of bonds to board members. The bond sale was a complete success and made possible the purchase of three acres of land on Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills, Michigan, one of the area’s prime office locations. In recognition of this accomplishment and Yackness’s other achievements, the association named the building the “Irvin H. Yackness Building.”
His keen sensibilities and sensitivities have allowed him to employ the legal system to broaden housing construction opportunities by successfully contesting, among other issues, excessive zoning and code regulations, land use impediments, and discriminatory taxes, all the while serving as the “go-to” lawyer for builders and contractors throughout the state.
“There is no question,” says Yackness, “but that the law is the most important bulwark protecting the individual as well as the property rights of all of us, and why in my opinion the practice of law is a very high calling.”
“There is seldom a day that passes when a developer or builder does not seek my guidance and advice on the law as it pertains to their building or development objectives in various communities,” he says. And rarely—if ever—does Yackness come up empty handed, delivering the answer with the precision of a blazing fastball down the middle of the plate.
He also earned a reputation as a strong advocate of proactive legislation, most recently procuring the enactment of legislation that he conceived and drafted to make Michigan homebuyer complaints subject to adjudication by mediation and arbitration in place of determination by a state agency.
One of his notable courtroom successes was the refund of $6 million dollars to his builder members for what the court adjudicated to be a discriminatory tax for municipal sewer taps. Yackness also was conferred a Senior Life Directorship on the boards of both the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C., and the
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“There is no question,” says Yackness, “but that the law is the most important bulwark protecting the individual as well as the property rights of all of us, and why in my opinion the practice of law is a very high calling.”
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Michigan Association of Home Builders in Lansing, Michigan, and received numerous awards from both the Michigan and national associations in recognition of his achievements over the years. Distinguished among his peers for his administrative ability and legal acumen, Yackness is the only executive officer, in more than 800 local builders associations in the nation, to have been inducted into the National Housing Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.
Yackness remembers well the challenges he faced as a full-time law student who also needed to work full time. The real property award that he is funding will benefit students in similar financial situations. The recipient will be a third-year law student who writes the winning paper related to real property law. “It is my hope that my gift will encourage and make possible the pursuit of a law practice career,” he says.
The sun has yet to set on this esteemed lawyer’s career; he continues to serve BIA—serving up a good tennis match, too, in the early mornings or late evenings. He is also skipper to a crew of 10 on his 40-foot racing sloop, “Caprice,” during the summer and fall. Sailing is another interest he shared with his schoolteacher-turned-psychologist wife June. Past commodore of the Great Lakes Yacht Club, he won a first-place cup in the highly competitive Bay View-Port Huron-Mackinac Race.
In addition to his planned gift to MSU-DCL, Yackness has established a charitable fund within the BIA Charitable & Educational Foundation to honor the memory and legacy of his wife of 46 years. Toward the end of the year 2000 and shortly after his wife’s death, he also donated a 50-foot flagpole to fly the American flag in front of the association headquarters building. At the base, on a commemorative bronze plate in a wrought iron enclosure, the inscription reads: “Dedicated to the memory of Dr. June G. Yackness for her devoted and resolute support for 46 years to the Building Industry Association—September 1954 - October 2000.”
When the Lake St. Clair waters aren’t calling him, he is still being called upon—and answering the call, leveling the playing field and building dreams.
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