Bert L. Thornton President’s Award 2023

MAI, SRA, AI-GRS

Larry T. Wright MAI, SRA, AI-GRS, began his career as an appraiser in 1973 in Houston, Texas. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1970, majoring in math and physics. He served as a North Vietnamese linguist/translator in the Army Security Agency and spent a year in Vietnam. His appraisal career started with a focus on litigation assignments for various government authorities and private companies doing condemnation work. He testified as an expert witness in county, state, and federal courts. He joined the local chapters of the American Institute and the Society of Real Estate Appraisers and served on committees and the board of directors of each local chapter. In 1976, he began his second career as an instructor in the State of Texas for real estate brokerage and appraising, teaching at local real estate schools and colleges.

In 1996, he was elected president of the Houston Chapter of the Appraisal Institute, and the following year he served as treasurer of Region VIII. In 1997 he became an approved instructor for the Appraisal Institute. A few years later, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Appraisal Institute and attended LDAC meetings in Washington, D.C. He also served as a member of the Audit Committee until 2003. In part, due to his efforts as a director, the Appraisal Institute initiated its 717 Project to reorganize its educational endeavors.

He has served as a member and vice chair of The Appraisal Journal Editorial Board, member, and discussion leader for LDAC, chair of the Appraisal Journal Peer Review Panel, National Seminars Subcommittee, Education Committee, Body of Knowledge Committee, National Nominating Committee, and is currently serving as vice chair of the Education Committee. Under the leadership of Chris Johnson as chair of the Education Committee, he has been assisting in studying the continuing education market for appraisers. This study will be used to assist the Education Committee in making recommendations to the board of directors as to how delivery of the Appraisal Institute’s education will be done in the future.

As an instructor, he is currently approved to teach all the designation courses and almost all the Qualifying Education courses. He also holds the CDEI designation and teaches online and synchronous courses and seminars for national and other chapters. He has served as a course and seminar reviewer and content team developer of the qualifying and designation courses for classroom, synchronous, and livestream presentations. He also revised several courses for international presentations.

He and his wife, Lynn, reside near their daughter, Logan, and son-in-law, Alex. They also enjoy being near their young grandson, Jenson, with whom they spend as much time as possible.