John Capers, 77, was honored for his decades of service in the real estate industry, during which he has done a lot more than just sell homes.

JEFFERSON TWP — They came from all over Western Pennsylvania — and the state — to honor a man who has done a lot more than just sell real estate in Butler County for the past six decades.

They came to honor John Capers.

“I'm 77, but I still go in every day,” Capers said last Sunday as 150 people gathered at the Field House restaurant to pay tribute to his decades of service. “… It was always a fun thing for me. I enjoyed it.”

Capers was just a teenager when he started helping his father do listings and sales. Over a 60-year career, he not only sold properties, he won awards and represented Realtors in trade organizations, he attended conventions and represented the association in the halls of political power.

“It's a testament to someone's character,” Ron Huber of RE/MAX Alliance Realty and the president of the Butler County Association of Realtors, said as he looked over the growing crowd at the group's annual picnic, which was held this year in Capers' honor. “… You have to have a passion for it.”

“He's a real straight shooter,” Realtor Sally Heimbrook said of Capers. “You never heard a bad word about him professionally. Everybody's pretty happy to be his friend.”

Capers majored in real estate at the Business Training College of Pittsburgh. Over the years, he held local and statewide professional offices, worked hard on behalf of his fellow Realtors through the Pennsylvania Realtors' Political Action Committee and attended what has to be a record number of Pennsylvania Association of Realtors conventions — this will be his 60th year.

“John has just been a great Realtor,” said Ron Croushore, the CEO and owner of The Preferred Realty in Pittsburgh. “He was all about the Realtors. It was all about everybody else. He just loved being with Realtors.”

“It's all I've ever known,” Capers said of his long staying power in the field. “You either love it or you hate it. It's as simple as that.”

That love of trade kept Capers going through the tough times, like the early 1980s, when high interest rates forced everyone to work hard to close deals.

Looking back over his long career, though, Capers has always enjoyed the one-on-one relationships forged with home buyers and sellers.

“It's fun to get somebody a house,” he said. “It was always a fun thing for me.”