Selected for representation in "Kansas City's One Hundred Foremost Men," published in 1915, Charles Lyon Simpson*, during a lifetime in the real estate field, platted and sold 40 residential neighborhoods in and around Kansas City, Missouri.
First among Kansas City's neighborhood builders, Mr. Simpson belonged to a family in which firsts were a tradition. His father was one of the first settlers in the Kansas State territory and lived in a section where border warfare was common. His great-grandfather was the American who fired the first shot at Bunker Hill.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Simpson entered the real estate business in 1889. Known among his associates for his warm friendliness, he was one of the early directors of the Real Estate Board of Kansas City, and was also its president.
Elected the fifth president of the National Association of REALTORS®, he helped to frame the first national code of business ethics for real estate. When this first statement of the ethics of real estate practice was formulate and adopted, only three other codes of business or professional ethics had been adopted in this country, those of the American Medical Association, American Bar Association, and United Typothetae.
It was Mr. Simpson's ambition to put the National Association on a sound financial basis. During his term as president, International Realty Associates was set up as an aide to Association financing. Association members subscribed $100,000 of the capital stock of this company, which for many years invested in real estate in all parts of the country. As president, Mr. Simpson also was concerned with securing more uniform rates for real estae appraisals throughout the United States and Canada, and with eliminating fraudulent advertising of real estate.
Source: Presidents of the National Association of REALTORS®, (Chicago: NAR, 1980).
*Deceased