Michael T. Oliver, 72, died March 9th at home in Redmond after a long illness. Mike started his adventure in Honolulu in 1943 when he was born to Tom and Edna Oliver. He was the oldest of five children including his brother, Gary, and sisters, Robin, Penny and Wiki. Mike always had very fond memories of attending Punahou School while growing up and thoroughly enjoyed attending reunions, including his 50th reunion in recent years.
Mike decided to leave Honolulu in 1961 to attend Colgate University in upstate New York. As soon as the weather turned cold his first year, he promptly developed pneumonia and bronchitis at the same time. Mike recovered (and got used to the weather) to eventually graduate with a degree in geology. However, before he graduated, he took a fateful spring break trip to Daytona Beach his sophomore year, where he met a young woman named Barbara Smith. Barbara, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, was attending Averett University in Virginia at the time before transferring to the University of North Carolina the next year. They dated throughout the rest of college; Mike driving down in his old car to see Barbara and Barbara taking a 21 hour bus ride to Colgate to see Mike.
Mike and Barbara were married while Mike was getting his MBA from the University of Virginia. Upon graduation, Mike joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Company (now J.P. Morgan Chase) in New York as a securities analyst. This was the start of his life long career as a Real Estate Investment Trust and real estate analyst, and portfolio manager. Mike next spent time with Alex Brown & Sons in Baltimore, JMB Institutional Realty in Chicago and Kennedy Associates in Seattle, before starting PRA Securities Advisors in San Francisco. When PRA Securities Advisors was merged into Heitman Realty, Mike was back living in Seattle. He next joined RERC Capital Markets as Chairman and then became a partner in MPAC Capital Partners, helping governments in Asia with their real estate securities laws. Next up was moving to Juneau, Alaska from 2000-05 to run the real estate and private equity portfolios of the State of Alaska pension fund. Mike semi-retired back to the Seattle area at the end of 2005, continuing to work on special projects around the country for friends in the real estate business.
As a child, Mike surfed the beautiful beaches of his home state and later enjoyed playing soccer and golf. Although he never lived in Hawaii after his childhood, he returned often and always had a very strong love of his home state. He loved fishing with his family and owned a number of boats over the years. Mike also enjoyed traveling for both work and pleasure and took his family on many wonderful trips, both in the U.S. and internationally. He was an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction and must have read thousands of books over the years.
Mike is survived by his wife of 50 years, Barbara, his three children, and eight grandchildren. His daughter, Kim, lives in Issaquah, WA with her son and daughter. His daughter, Kathy, lives in Snoqualmie, WA with her 2 daughters and son. His son, Tom, lives outside of San Francisco with his wife and three boys.
A funeral service will be held on Saturday, March 19th, at 3:30 PM in the Upper Room at Redmond Presbyterian Church, 10020 166th Avenue N.E., Redmond, WA 98052. Mike had a tremendous amount of appreciation for the high quality, compassionate care that he received from Virginia Mason Hospital and donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Virginia Mason Foundation Fund for Excellence at https://connect.virginiamasonfoundation.org/donate .