Home-building matriarch Chism dies

Wednesday, July 11, 2001 | 8:32 a.m.

Services for Marjorie L. Chism, matriarch of a family that built homes in Southern Nevada and throughout the West, will be 10 a.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary-Eastern.

Chism, who worked side-by-side with noted late Las Vegas homebuilder Hank Chism as secretary-treasurer of Chism Homes, died Saturday at her Las Vegas home from heart and lung disease following a lengthy illness. She was 79.

Visitation for the Las Vegas resident of 38 years will be 4-7 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary-Eastern. Burial will be in a Palm Valley View Cemetery crypt alongside Hank Chism, who died in February 2000.

"My mother and my family are proud that real estate agents, as a selling point, tell potential buyers that a particular (previously owned) house is a Chism Home because we have not built homes for several years," Sharon Milano of Las Vegas said.

"My mother and my father came here because they saw a need for quality housing in Las Vegas, and the rest of the family followed and settled here."

The Chisms also have long been known for philanthropic endeavors, including efforts to establish Boys Town in Southern Nevada and their donations to and work with the American Cancer Society, Heart Fund, Salvation Army and numerous other charities.

Born Marjorie Crowder on Dec. 26, 1921, in West Point Ark., she was the youngest of three children of David Crockett Crowder and the former Lucile Thomas.

After graduating from West Point High, Marjorie worked as a secretary in Arkansas. She was introduced to Hank by her brother Tommy on a trip to California. They married in 1941 and were together for 59 years.

While living in Colorado, where Hank Chism had become known as a visionary builder of quality homes, the family decided to expand to Nevada in the 1950s and eventually to Utah, Texas, Idaho and California. The Chisms moved here permanently in 1963 and built homes across the valley.

When the recession of the 1980s stalled many builders, the Chisms kept building homes, believing that the economy would make a booming comeback, which it did. The Chisms were among the first builders in the country to use double-pane windows on homes for energy efficiency.

In the last four years tragedy struck the family -- first with the 1997 drowning of Marjorie's son Mike Chism at Lake Mead and then with the sudden illness that took Hank at age 78. Marjorie, a cigarette smoker since she was a teenager, developed emphysema and pulmonary problems in recent years.

In addition to her daughter, Chism is survived by a son, Don Chism of Las Vegas; a brother Tommy Crowder of Lafayette, Colo.; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The family said donations can be made in Marjorie Chism's memory to Family Home Hospice.