Richard “Dick” D. Barker, Jr.
March 14, 1933 – July 21, 2023
It is with great sorrow that NEFAR has learned of the death of longtime Riverside/Avondale/Ortega REALTOR® Richard “Dick” D. Barker, Jr. Dick passed away peacefully on July 21 and his memorial service will be held Saturday, September 2 at 1:30 pm at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Ortega. His family will receive friends at a celebration of life at 3 pm at the Florida Yacht Club, 5210 Yacht Club Rd., Jacksonville, FL 32210. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
An honors graduate of both Robert E. Lee High School and the University of Florida, Dick served in the U.S. Navy Reserves from 1954 until he retired as a commander in 1970. He was also a second-generation REALTOR®. In 1957, he joined the family real estate firm that his father founded in 1925, offering appraisal and residential brokerage services in the Riverside/Avondale area. Upon his retirement from the Navy, Barker took over the family business and joined the Jacksonville Association of REALTORS® (JAR) in 1969. Today, his father’s company still exists, headed by Dick’s son, Michael, who joined his father in real estate after graduating from college in 1984. When Dick retired in 1995 and turned the company over to Michael, the company became more investment oriented.
During Dick Barker’s 25-year tenure at the helm, he grew his father’s company into a very successful brokerage. Dick was known for his classic business model, his knowledge of the profession, and his fairness in all transactions. In 1969 he joined JAR and the Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, and later served as president of both organizations in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, his father, Richard D. Barker, Sr., served as association president in 1945.
In 1975, he won ‘REALTOR of the YEAR,” for the Jacksonville Association of REALTORs following again in his father’s footsteps –his dad won the same award in 1955.
He also was personally honored in 1982 with the B.C. Buck Memorial Trophy, which was given annually to the individual who puts together the most ingenious real estate transaction, whether it be a lease, trade, sale, or any other phase of the general real estate business. The award also can be given to the real estate office which makes the most progress and contributes the most to the real estate profession during a specific year. In this way, he once more followed his father’s example. His dad’s company took home the B.C. Buck trophy in 1968.
In 1990, he also served on the Jacksonville MLS Board of Governors, as vice president of the Jacksonville Multiple Listing Service, as well as the JAR Professional Standards Committee, Policy Committee and Membership Committee. That year he was honored as a member of the Diamond Pin Club, for procuring 10 new members.
For the span of his career, prior to his 1995 retirement, Barker most enjoyed meeting local people and helping them find the homes they need.
“What people knew him most for was that he was very personable and honest. He was a gentleman, and a professional. He valued professionalism and honesty in business more than anything,” said his son, Michael. “People always felt very comfortable coming to him and saying, ‘This is where we are, tell me what to do.’ They could always depend on him for an honest, straightforward answer, and he was very creative in the way he put real estate deals together.
Dick was one of the first real estate professionals to arrange deals where houses were traded for condos, said Michael. “When people wanted to retire and go into condominiums, which first started being built back in the late 1970s and 80s around here, he was one of the first ones to work with the developers,” he said.
“When condos kind of went into a slump, condo developers would take the person’s house in trade because selling the house was a lot easier than selling the condo. So, when somebody really wanted the condo and didn’t want to hassle between the two, he was one of the first ones to do those exchanges. He did a lot of different things like that. I think one year he was given the Creative REALTOR® award for ‘Best Creative Deal,’” Michael said, referring to the B.C. Buck Memorial Trophy. “He was very, very good at looking at each situation and coming up with a way to get to yes. He was always able to come up with a way to make it work so it was a win-win. Win-win was very important to him,” Michael said.
