Résumé

Vice-President, Security Pacific National Bank, Los Angeles, CA, c. 1960-1964.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chairman of Board of Directors, Maguire Properties LLC, Los Angeles, CA, 1965-2008. The company developed properties in Los Angeles, CA, and Dallas, TX. The company's Board of Directors removed Maguire from his CEO and Chairman of the Board posts in 05/2008, in a dispute with shareholders over the potential sale of the firm. At the time of his ouster, Maguire Properties controlled 9.1 million square feet of office space in Downtown Los Angeles, making its that neighborhood's single largest landowner. It also owned significant office square footage in Orange County, that saw a sharp downturn in late 2007 and early 2008. Ben Johnson, writing in the National Real Estate Investor.com wrote: "Much of the problem stems from the loss of many of Maguire's office tenants in the Orange County submarket, where the company owns some 8 million sq. ft. of space. Thanks to cutbacks by subprime residential lenders, including failing Ameriquest and New Century Financial Corp., Maguire has been left with nearly a third of its Orange County space vacant just as the local economy is cooling down." (See Ben Johnson, National Real Estate Investor.com. "Real Estate Legend Ousted," published 06/01/2008, accessed 05/15/2019.) This Orange County slump would be a harbinger of the larger collapse of real estate markets later in 2008.

Professional Activities

Trustee in Los Angeles, Urban Land Institute (ULI), Los Angeles, CA.

College

B.A. Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Westwood, Los Angeles, CA, c. 1955.

Relocation

In 1960, he lived with his parents at 14322 Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, CA, according to voter records. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 05/14/2019.)

Parents

His father, Robert F. Maguire, Jr., (born 01/07/1911 in Portland, OR-d. 06/10/2005 in Northrdige, Los Angeles, CA) worked as an inspector of buildings for an insurance company in King County, WA, in 1940. His mother, Jean M. Shepard (born c. 1913 in OR), worked in the home. Robert and Jean also had a daughter, Kathleen (born c. 1932 in OR).

As was noted in his New York Times obituary, Robert, Jr.'s father, "...Robert Francis Sr., was a lawyer who became a judge at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials in the late 1940's. Robert Jr. began flying as a teenager, later attending Reed College and the University of Oregon. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps the day after Pearl Harbor, and flew in the Pacific region in the war." (See Margalit Fox, New York Times.com, "Robert Maguire Jr., 94, Pilot Who Airlifted Yemenite Jews, Dies," published 06/18/2005, accessed 05/15/2019.)

After World War II, Robert Maguire, Jr., worked as a commercial airline pilot for Alaska Airlines. During the unrest that spread over the Middle East during the partition of Palestine/Israel in 1947, Jews living throughout region began being attacked. These pogroms stimulated efforts to collect these groups of Jewish refugees and airlift them to the new Jewish state. Starting in 12/1948, Maguire participated in what the American Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC) called "Operation Magic Carpet," piloting 380 flights transporting 40,000 Yemeni Jewish refugees to Israel. This process of removing all of the Yemeni Jews took approximately one year. Before this, he was involved in flying Chinese Jewish refugees to Israel under the auspices of the United Nations and other humanitarian groups. He later piloted Alaska Airliines planes contracted by the AJDC to ferry Iraqi and Iranian Jews out of that area into Israel as part of "Operation Magic Carpet." Because of his often dangerous volunteer work leading Jews to safety, Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), dubbed Maguire "the Irish Moses." He contracted heartworm in the 1950s, a condition that disqualified him from continuing work as a commercial pilot.

Robert F. Maguire, Jr., got into finance and real estate after moving to the Los Angeles area. He worked as a loan appraiser for the George Elkins Company in Beverly Hills, CA, in 1955. (See Beverly Hills, California, City Directory, 1955, p. 106.)

Spouse

Maguire married Joan Tewkesbury in Carson City, NV, on 12/07/1960. They divorced on 01/1973 in Los Angeles, CA.

He married Susan W. Reddan in Santa Barbara, CA, on 03/02/1974.

Children

He had four children.

Biographical Notes

Nicknamed "Bubbles."

Member, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Medical School Executive Board, Westwood, Los Angeles, CA.

Trustee, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA.

Trustee, Bard College, Bard Master of Arts in Teaching Program, Los Angeles, CA.

Trustee, Los Angeles Performing Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA.

Governor, Los Angeles Music Center, Board of Governors, Los Angeles, CA.

Director, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors, Los Angeles, CA.

Trustee, UCLA Foundation, Westwood, Los Angeles, CA.

Member, Saint John’s Hospital, Board of Directors, Santa Monica, CA.

Member, California Club, Los Angeles, CA.

Member, Valley Club of Montecito, Montecito, CA.

Member, Los Angeles Country Club, Los Angeles, CA.