Experienced leader joins Housing Authority Board

No stranger to leadership positions, Richard Mendenhall will now become a member of the Columbia Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

Mayor Darwin Hindman chose Mendenhall to fill an open slot on the authority board at Monday night’s City Council meeting. Mendenhall replaces Fred Parry, whose term expired.

Mendenhall has been serving as chairman of the Housing Ownership Task Force for the authority. The task force hired and is working with consultants on the proposed redevelopment of the Park Avenue public housing area.

“I am a huge supporter of him and that project,” Hindman said.

Mendenhall has a long list of civic accomplishments. He has served as president of Regional Economic Development Inc. and of the Columbia 2000 Steering Committee in the early 1990s. He was a member of the Columbia Economic Development Commission, chairman of the Columbia Area Substance Abuse Task Force and president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

Hindman said he also chose Mendenhall because he knows Columbia.

“He’s grown up here and is one of Columbia’s most successful in real estate,” Hindman said.

Mendenhall has been a Realtor in Columbia for 33 years. He is president of RE/MAX Boone Realty and was president of the National Association of Realtors in 2001. Hindman said Mendenhall will be able to bring a national perspective on housing to the authority board.

“He is an outstanding leader,” Hindman said.