Reckoning with Our Past

By Alan C. Iannacito, FASA

With the recent passing of a dynamic individual, John Connolly III, ASA, we recognize the individuals, among the many, who put the American Society of Appraisers in the lead as the most influential and international multi-discipline appraisal organization.

John Connolly was an original and a passionate member of our current ASA-MTS discipline committee. John was a doer and a leader. A leader that propelled his presidency of the ASA and a two-term leader as MTS Chairman.

John was one of many of our members, from a second generation of ASA leaders, evolving from the lineage of American Society of Appraisers from the organization’s 1932 inception. Before MTS, as we know it now, machinery and technical appraisers usually came from engineering and business people who developed appraisal standards influenced by industrial casualty insurance writers. These founders whose passion for professional status came at the opportune time of another industrial revolution where, among others, steel mills, manufactures, machine shops, mining and processing industries needed capital, asset validation and insurance. Our profession progressed during and after World War II when machinery was paramount to civilization’s needs.

The MTS committee, as we know it today, began about 1984. I use that year because three years into the committee business we published APPRAISING MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT, Sponsored by The American Society of Appraisers, John Alico, FASA, Editor. This first ASA M&E committee hard-back book, published through McGraw-Hill, was the seed for the following three and soon to be fourth, revision. 

As initial Machinery and Equipment committee Chairman, I asked for and received volunteers to take on goals that we found wanting in the profession. John Connolly, among others in that initial committee, volunteered. He and his peers hung on to ideals that became the very strong ASA-MTS influence that it is today.

Also gone this year: Our first newsletter editor H. Denis Neumann, ASA, and influential members, Robert Podwalny, and FASA, Richard Kaufmann, FASA, are no longer with us but their influence instills the basic structure of our discipline.

The MTS discipline is made credible through the writing, teaching and influence of our profession. Most of this came through ASA members with personal sacrifice, monetary contributions, and long hours because they wanted to be part of the evolution.

While writing this, I studied the last three ASA MTS textbooks for contributors to the texts. The same names keep appearing along with new authors. I also looked at the current nineteen-member list of the ASA MTS Committee. Some of the early and continuing contributors appear, but I recognize that we are into the next generation of ASA-MTS influencers.

I would like to memorialize those, almost one-hundred, people, many no longer with us but not forgotten. And, I will touch on those members and contributors to our great profession at another time.

We are ingratiated to John Connolly, III, his mentors and his peers for they are the same ASA members and supporters who have helped us succeed.

Thank you to those who have left us this year and God speed.

Alan C. Iannacito, FASA
Littleton, Colorado

Editor’s note: Obituary: John J. Connolly, III, ASA, 1950-2019

John Joseph Connolly III, ASA, CMI, 69, a past International President of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA), passed away on November 5, 2019. Born in Hoboken, N.J. on November 4, 1950 and a resident of North Haledon, N.J. for the previous 42 years, he was a commercial equipment appraiser. Mr. Connolly was the owner of Connolly Consulting LLC in Glen Rock, N.J. and previously was the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Nationwide Consulting Company, Inc., in Glen Rock, N.J.

Mr. Connolly was an ASA accredited appraiser in the Machinery & Technical Specialties (MTS) and Real Property (RP) Disciplines. He joined ASA in 1975 and has held many leadership positions and participated actively over the years at the International level, within the MTS discipline, and in Northern New Jersey Chapter. Most notably Mr. Connolly served as International President (2002-2003); Regional Governor (1993-1996); Chair of the MTS Discipline Committee (2015-2017); and as ASA Northern New Jersey Chapter’s President (1986-1987).

Mr. Connolly was also an ASA instructor and taught many MTS courses in the United States and abroad. His most recent assignment overseas was in Slovenia, formerly Yugoslavia, at request of Slovenian Government to set up a MTS certification. He also taught courses in Mexico, England, Australia and Romania.

Mr. Connolly is the co-author of The Appraisal of Machinery and Equipment, 1988, and co-author Valuing Machinery and Equipment, 2000. He is the former editor of ASA’s Machinery and Equipment Newsletter, 1983-1985.

To read John J. Connolly’s obituary, please click here.