Eugene Gulledge, an advocate for the housing industry who served as NAHB president in 1969 before joining the Nixon Administration as the Federal Housing Administration commissioner, died on Aug. 14 in Surprise, Ariz. He was 91.

Gulledge, who was born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, Washington, D.C., and North Carolina before serving in the Navy during World War II, became a successful home builder after starting the Superior Construction Co. with his brother-in-law in Greensboro, N.C.

Active in the industry and NAHB, Gulledge founded an HBA in Greensboro in 1957.

As NAHB president, he worked closely with the Nixon Administration on housing issues and was eventually asked by Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary George Romney to serve as assistant secretary for housing production and mortgage credit and as an FHA commissioner, a post he held till the end of Nixon’s first term. During Gulledge’s tenure at HUD, housing production surpassed all other comparable periods.

Gulledge received numerous awards for his service to the industry and the association. He was inducted into the National Housing Hall of Fame in 1979 as well as the North Carolina Housing Hall of Fame in 1997.

In addition, in 1979, the Greensboro Builders Association named its highest honor — the Eugene Gulledge Award for Distinguished Service — after him. 

Gulledge is survived by his wife of 71 years, Ruth; two sons, Keith and Roger; 11 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.