C. Dan Joyner: 1937-2012

By Charles Sowell  

JANUARY 12, 2012 2:18 p.m. (0)

Real estate magnate C. Dan Joyner was a hard man to say no to; he was also a man who had a hard time saying no to others.

Joyner died of heart disease Sunday evening at Bob Secours St. Francis Hospital. He was 74.

Joyner had been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy 14 years ago and was told he had five to seven years to live. Few people knew of his condition.

“Dan was a hard man to deny but he was also a man who had a hard time saying no to others, turning folks down,” said Seabrook Marchant, who worked for Joyner for 25 years before starting his own real estate company in 1993. “I learned a great deal from him during our years together and a big part of that were people skills.”

Nick Sabatine, executive director of the Greenville Association of Realtors, said Joyner went to Hilton Head to talk him into coming to Greenville to take over the association.

“I had no reason to go. I didn’t really want to go, but he talked me into it. Best move I ever made,” he said.

Joyner’s jovial nature carried him a long way, but he could also be tough, hard-nosed when it came to things that mattered.

Greenville Mayor Knox White remembers during the early stages of planning for a baseball stadium that Joyner called him about a plan to build beside the Reedy River.

“Knoxy,” Joyner said. “This isn’t going to work. It’s time to cut our losses.”

“Dan was a man who could make decisions. He was willing to take risks, but he was also somebody who knew when to walk away from a deal,” White said. “He could really turn on the power of concentration and make a decision. Then he’d return to his affable self.”

Mike Riordan, chief executive officer of the Greenville Hospital System, said Joyner, as chairman of the hospital board, was instrumental in his hiring.

“The search was a big deal,” Riordan said. “The pressure was on him (Joyner), the jury’s still out on me. He took a gamble on a guy from New Jersey who most recently was in Chicago to be part of the vision of moving GHS forward. He will always be special to me.”

Riordan said Joyner played a role in the development of the hospital in Greer and helped to start the hospital’s diversity program.

Joyner’s heart problems stretched back for years, those who knew him said. He’d struggled with his weight and was recently placed on a steroid medication that sent his waistline bulging.

“I saw him not long ago at a Furman basketball game,” said Ralph Hendricks of Ralph Hendricks Inc., who knew Joyner for more than 25 years and served with him on the Furman University board. “We spoke briefly and I remarked to my wife how Dan wasn’t looking well.”

Carey Dan Joyner was born in Greenville on Aug. 6, 1937. He grew up on West Tallulah Street in the Augusta Road area. At Greenville High he was a cheerleader. He also worked in his father’s hardware store in Travelers Rest after school, traveling there by city bus.

At Furman University he majored in business administration and minored in political science, was on the Furman cheerleading squad and served as student body president. He graduated in 1959. He then served in the United States Army, serving as first lieutenant in Army Intelligence.

Joyner started in the real estate business in 1962 as a salesman and opened his own firm in 1964 with three employees in the old Lawyer’s Building, which was located next to the old Greenville County Courthouse on East North Street, Marchant said.

“The building was torn down years ago to make way for the new courthouse,” he said. “Dan built the office on Pleasantburg in 1966, I think. A second building was added a couple of years later and they were joined with a common entrance. To look at it today you’d never know it was once two buildings.”

Joyner sold his firm to Merrill Lynch in 1985, signing a five-year management deal with the company. Five years later Prudential bought Merrill Lynch’s real estate business.

Joyner worked with other Realtors in the area to start Prudential-Carolinas Realty, which covered North and South Carolina.

In 1997 Joyner bought out his partners and in 2007 his company had $1 billion in gross sales. Last year sales were $585 million. Prudential C. Dan Joyner employed about 300 agents scattered in offices across the region. Dozens of those agents went out on their own, with varying degrees of success during the years, Marchant said.

“I don’t know how he did it, keeping all those people who worked for him happy,” said Hendricks. “You think of real estate as a cutthroat business, and it is, but Dan was never that way.”

Sabatine recalled making a run with Joyner to the Anderson Jockey Lot to purchase items for work on Joyner’s home.

“He loved to work around the house. It’s a trait I think he picked up from his father who ran a hardware store in Travelers Rest,” he said.

Joyner’s hands were hard as an oak board from the calluses he got doing yard work, Sabatine said.

“Both Dan and his wife Kat (his wife Katherine) hated to fly, but he’d do it for business or to attend a Realtor’s conference,” Sabatine said.

“Dan could pinch a nickel, too,” Marchant said, recalling the time Joyner rented a bus to haul a crowd of his agents to a Realtor’s event in Florida.

“I guess the bus wasn’t exactly top of the line. Anyway, it broke down and we ended up sitting beside the road for four or five hours until a replacement could get to us.”

Joyner served as regional vice president and president of the South Carolina Association of Realtors and as regional vice president and a director of the National Association of Realtors.

Twice he was named Greenville Realtor of the Year and South Carolina Realtor of the Year. In 2002, he was named National Prudential Broker of the Year and was put in the Prudential Hall of Fame.

He also earned the National Association of Realtors Distinguished Service Award in 2009.

Joyner served in leadership positions with the United Way, Greenville Community Foundation, March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Juvenile Diabetes Association and the Homeless Coalition. He was a past chairman of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and Greenville Hospital System board. He also served on the boards for the Peace Center and the Greenville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Gov. David Beasley awarded Joyner the Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian honor, in 1998.

The Greenville Community Foundation gave him the Ruth Nicholson Award for distinguished service and leadership in 2009.

A memorial service for Joyner was held at Greenville First Baptist on Thursday. Joyner was a member of the church for most of his life and served as a deacon and Sunday School teacher.

He is survived by his wife, Katherine “Kat” Poole Joyner; daughters, Beth Joyner Crigler and her husband, David, and Lynn Joyner Freemon; a son, Carey Dan “Danny” Joyner and his wife, Polly; 10 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.