BICENTENNIAL: Four who made a difference: Residential Real Estate

Eugene B. Glick

1921-2012

Eugene B. Glick returned to his hometown following combat in World War II and began building homes south of Broad Ripple. Glick, a 1939 graduate of Shortridge High School, continued building on the east side immediately after World War II and parlayed his expertise into the Gene B. Glick Co., which became one of the state’s largest apartment developers in the 1970s. In later life, Glick turned more of his attention to the Eugene & Marilyn Glick Family Foundation, which supported a wide variety of civic and community betterment, particularly in the area of disadvantaged and minority youth. Glick and his wife, Marilyn, made a major donation of their glassware collection to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and were major contributors to development of the Cultural Trail downtown.•

Charles P. Morgan

1949-

Charles P. Morgan illustrated the boom-and-bust nature of the residential housing market in Indianapolis and the nation at large. A 1967 graduate in electrical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Morgan founded C.P. Morgan Co. in 1983. During the next quarter century, Carmel-based C.P. Morgan built nearly 25,000 homes in the metropolitan area, streamlining the home-building process for first-time and move-up home buyers. Morgan expanded to the booming North Carolina market in 2004 and again in 2007, but the collapse of the subprime lending market in 2008 forced the homebuilder out of business a year later.•

Thomas Moses

1919-1986

Water utility executive and community leader Thomas Moses helped create one of the Indianapolis area’s most unique residential communities. Moses first came to Indianapolis as assistant to the president of the Indianapolis Water Co. in 1956. The Yale Law School graduate was named company president later that year and served in that capacity until 1962. After holding other corporate offices with out-of-state firms, Moses returned to the city as chairman of the Indianapolis Water Co. in 1970. During the ’70s, he promoted Shorewood Corp., a subsidiary of the company, which developed land near the water company’s Geist and Morse reservoirs. Moses is credited with playing a key role in bringing the Hudson Institute think tank and the Indianapolis Colts to the city.•

Robert V. Welch

1927-1992

Although best known in Indianapolis for his 1976 campaign to relocate Cathedral High School from 14th and Meridian streets to a new campus on the growing northeast side, Robert V. Welch made his mark in the 1950s and 1960s building more than 10,000 homes and apartment units in his hometown. A Cathedral and University of Notre Dame graduate, Welch boasted of making his first $1 million at the age of 33; Welch later told reporters he had made and lost fortunes during his years in development in Indianapolis. A lifelong Democrat, Welch narrowly lost to Republican candidate Bill Hudnut in the 1975 mayoral race. Welch died in a September 1992 plane crash with colleagues Frank McKinney Jr., Michael Carroll and John Weliever.•