Socials

Jay Koppelman

I grew up in the 50’s in the smog ridden, Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys. After surviving my high school experience, I went over the hill to UCLA where I obtained my BA in Psychology. Then it was off to the work-a-day world as a Real Estate Appraiser Trainee helping the City of Los Angeles figure out how much to pay people for sawing off their front yards for street widening projects.

That’s when I felt the draft blowing down the back of my neck, convincing me to enlist in an OCS program in the U.S. Army. With training finally behind me and equipped with shiny Lieutenants’ bars, I served stateside as the head of a training center and then overseas with the First Infantry Division in the Republic of South Vietnam, first as a Platoon Leader and then as a company Executive Officer. Having, thankfully, survived my military experience, I went back to school, this time at UC Berkeley where I received my MBA.

After graduation, I worked as a land acquisition agent and then homebuilding project manager for a San Francisco Bay Area construction company. But soon my personal ambition drove me out on my own scratching for a living doing real estate appraisals and investment brokerage. That led to brokerage management and the buying, selling and management of apartment properties for my own account, followed by home building and mortgage finance.

In addition to managing a successful 40 year real estate career, my wife and I have enjoyed the challenge of raising three beautiful daughters who have blessed us with six grandchildren who keep us young by wearing us out. During any spare time I managed to carve out, I have enjoyed golf, recreational flying, reading about the science and technology that has always captivated me and occasionally putting pen to paper crafting short shorts that I enjoyed reading over and again but never sought to publish.

Now in retirement, I work with my wife at Strategies for Learning, Inc., a learning clinic providing educational therapy for kids and young adults and also work as a volunteer for several philanthropic organizations including serving as a past president and a continuing member of the Board of the Contra Costa Jewish Day School. And now I’m an author too.