Business Hall of Fame honors Melvin Rashkis

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce will honor 12 local business leaders at its inaugural Hall of Fame Nov. 13. The Daily Tar Heel will feature each of its inductees. Melvin Rashkis will be inducted.

Melvin Rashkis’ specialty was providing people with homes, but his passion was providing children with a better education.

Rashkis, who died in November 2008, created Chapel Hill’s largest real estate firm — Mel Rashkis & Associates — and was known as one of Chapel Hill’s biggest business leaders.

He also served as the president of the Board of Realtors and president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.

A reputation for fairness

Rashkis’ daughter, Jill Goodman, said her dad was one of the only realtors in Chapel Hill in the 1960s who would show homes to African-American buyers.

During that time, Rashkis helped former Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee and his wife find a house in the area after others turned them away because of racial discrimination.

Lee, elected in 1969, was the first black mayor elected in a predominantly white Southern town since the Reconstruction Era.

“I think that’s one reason why he had such good people skills,” Goodman said. “Because in business, you like to deal with someone who isn’t mean-spirited but someone who cares. He totally cared about people.”

Goodman said Rashkis was always busy because he wanted to give people his best work, and he got to know everyone he met.

“That’s why people were attracted to his company—because of the way he treated people,” Goodman said. “He had a reputation for fairness.”

A love of education

Rashkis extended his fairness in realty to fairness in education. Goodman said Rashkis was influenced by his wife, Zora, a middle school language arts teacher.

“It was by osmosis that he become involved with Chapel Hill Schools,” Goodman said.

Deshera Mack, the former principal of Mel and Zora Rashkis Elementary School in Chapel Hill, said the school was named after him and his wife when it opened in 2003 because of their support and love of education.

“He was a supporter of education and a lover of people,” Mack said.

Goodman said Rashkis attended many school events, including plays, concerts and musicals.

“He put his money where his mouth was,” she said.

Rashkis founded Performing Arts Lovers, or PALS, a parent support group of the arts.

Mack said Rashkis’ generosity and caring personality made him a constant, positive force in the school.

“He always wanted to make things better for people no mater who they were or what status they had,” she said. “He was a sincere person. He would do anything for you.”

Goodman said she hopes Rashkis’ grandkids will follow in his footsteps and contribute to Chapel Hill’s business community.

“If they have any aspirations for the way he was, they would try to make the world a bit of a better place,” she said.

Goodman said her father would be honored to be inducted into the Chamber’s Hall of Fame.

“I hope and pray that he can look down from heaven and see that he was getting this award because he would be so, so proud.”

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