John F. Long
(Founder) was an unassuming, yet supremely confident man
whose
character was forged by the tough times of the Depression. While
others may see him as a visionary perfectionist whose innovative building
techniques spread from his native Arizona around the world, or even as a
humanitarian whose philanthropy is equally far reaching, Long described
himself as a bit of a ‘lone wolf’, an ordinary, hard-working man who, when
he sees something that needs to be done, does it. Like so many Americans of
his generation, John F. Long’s success was the product of hard work, ingenuity,
and a little luck. He was born the first child of German immigrant parents
who came to the Valley in the 1910s, met and married. “We wouldn’t have dreamed of
asking for money,” Long recalled. “We learned to work for what we got. I had my
first job at age 8 selling the Phoenix Gazette in front of the old Lightning
Delivery building at Central and Jefferson, where Patriot’s Park is now.”
The death of his father and
the subsequent loss of the family store only accelerated his transition from
childhood to adulthood.
A boyhood spent on a farm taught him both how to work with his hands and
reinforced the value of such work. Many years later Long said, “Those early
years conditioned me for the “real” world. The better conditioned a person is
for the real world, the better they can adjust to it. Sure it can be real
brutal – that’s life. We didn’t have much, and so I never expected much. I
think this was beneficial, though it sure didn’t seem like it at the time.”
After graduating from Glendale High School, and with the effects of the Great Depression still lingering throughout
the country, he road the rails, “grabbing a handful of boxcars,” in search
of work.
Pearl Harbor ended all of that.
Uncle Sam soon recruited Long and found him a job as an engine mechanic on B-17s and B-24s,
where he eventually saw duty in Italy.
Mustered out of the service
after WWII, Long returned home, unsure of the future. He married his
sweetheart, Mary Tolmachoff. He’d met Mary at age 17, while watching her play
softball for the Webster’s Dairy girls' team. She was also a first generation
Arizonan whose parents were part of a group of Russian émigrés who came to farm
the land around Glendale in the years before World War I.
So, with
a G.I. loan, his own hammer, and other tools he borrowed from his stepfather,
John and Mary set to work building a home for themselves. “We did it the
hard way,” remembered Long, “learning as we went along. It took us 6 months
and cost $4,000 to build, and before it was finished we were offered $8,400 for
it.” With profits like that to be made, the Longs decided to stick with
homebuilding a little longer.
Mary was promised the next
house. And then, the one after that. But the post-war housing boom was on, and
it was not until three years and numerous houses later that Mary finally got her
own home. Soon enough there were three children to look after. Manya, Shirley,
and Jake didn’t leave much time for hammering nails, and Mary’s hands-on building days were done.
“I didn’t have any
intention of getting into homebuilding in a big way and I didn’t do any market
research,” says Long. “We tried with each house to build it better and easier.
Soon it just seemed the thing to do.”
It is with
this history of integrity and great character that Long founded and led the company now
known as John F. Long Properties LLLP.
