Detroit Builder Manny Dembs Dies at Age 80
Manuel “Manny” Dembs, a senior life director of NAHB and a single-family home builder in Detroit for more than 40 years, died in West Bloomfield, MI, on Nov. 17. He was 80.
“Manny was an active and very involved member of our association who had a passion for the housing industry, and was always ready and willing to speak his mind at meetings of the national directors and other industry functions,” said Irvin Yackness, executive vice president and general counsel of the Building Industry Association of Southeastern Michigan.
Typical of many small volume builders, Dembs started his building business in the 1960s with few financial resources and he relied on his wife, Micki, to handle the books and finances. Over the next several decades, he became one of the most active builders in Southeastern Michigan.
Dembs served as president of the BIA of Southeastern Michigan in 1977 and simultaneously served as president of the Michigan Association of Home Builders. He also held numerous leadership positions within NAHB, including positions on the Executive, Legal Action, Membership and Custom Home Builders Committees. He became an NAHB life director in 1977 and a senior life director in 1987.