Fred Van Buskirk

Born in Pennsylvania, Fred moved to Vermont at a young age and spent his childhood and adolescence growing up on “Fraternity Row” in Burlington. Following college he took off for New York City landing stints with an ad agency and magazine. When called to military service, he was assigned to the Army’s GED program to teach English to replace a teacher who had abruptly quit to become the local television station’s weatherperson.

Following his service and with plans to resume a career in New York he gave pause due to a paralyzing transportation strike in the City and decided to seek a job in Vermont and ski a season first. That winter started a long term career with a national health agency that took him into every town in Vermont at one time or another. During that time Fred sought the assistance of Bud Heney to help him in finding a suitable office building for his organization.

Later, playing in a tennis group of retired and senior businessmen including Bud Heney, whom he had been introduced to early on as one of a handful of “must know” people in town. Fred inquired about real estate. Bud said if he passed the test he could join his company, then W.J. Heney & Son.

Initially attracted to the real estate business for the autonomy and opportunity for self-direction it offered, after 20 years, Fred has realized that what “held him in” through up and down markets is the connection and satisfaction it offers. Helping a new buyer or someone who hasn’t bought or sold a home for a long time navigate their way through the process by providing a steadying hand or a few words of advice or reassurance that allows clients and customers to gain control of their apprehensions, “That’s the fulfillment – and the fun,” he says.

The business has provided other satisfactions, such as serving as Central Vermont Board of Realtors President in 1998 and on a number of local board committees.

Fred and his wife Suzanne, a career teacher, live in Barre Town and have three grown children scattered about in pursuit of different endeavors.

Tennis and skiing are his recreation and his therapy.