The People Behind the Names…
Brendan
Being born and raised in a place with such lousy weather makes a young man earnest to move on and venture through the far off land of Babylon. However; after receiving an education at Johnson & Wales University and spending an additional two years in the chilly winds of the Northeast; this islo decided to move back and thaw his feet for the winter. I guess the weather’s not so bad after all.
Between Real Estate sales and Appraisal work, I manage to do some computer hacking to help keep these pages in order. Last minute details and late submissions are my specialty. I enjoy creating stress for Vivian at the eleventh hour when she’s ready to upload our revisions.
I like to take Sundays off. After I attend church, I usually go “tie one on” at the beach. That is of course if we aren’t racing our J-29 sailboat. Keep posted for our upcoming DOWN TIME articles.
Vivian
The queen of parentheses and exclamation points! Whenever you see these two punctuation marks (maybe dashes should be added, too, to make it three!) liberally sprinkled (doused?) throughout the copy, you can be fairly sure that I am the author (oh, my English teachers are probably rolling in their graves).
I came to St Thomas in 1973 after spending those young, formative years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Nassau, Bahamas. One would think that after spending most of my life in tropical climes that I would be a sailing nut like the rest of the CaribCats and a sun-lover like most people here. Nope. My idea of a great time is walking a short stretch of Cornwall’s coastal path (and not in the summer!) or touring caves in France (always in the low 50’s). I love shopping for antiques, grocery shopping in Europe, and paddling around in Magens Bay.
I am an avid reader (Dick Francis, Elizabeth George and Martha Grimes are favourite authors) and my house is awash in books. I’m also a fan of old films (this you’ve probably already figured out if you read Really Test the Water) and A&E’s Mystery Movies – especially Lovejoy.
And I’m a cook so Recipe of the Week is a pet project of mine. What a great excuse to con recipes out of those guys!
My husband, Francis (a Frenchie fisherman – my inside track) and I live in Hull Bay and are currently involved in building a house (really involved – I design, he builds) which should keep us busy for quite some time to come. We have 3 dogs who mean the world to us -Sophie, a Bouvier; Gina and Sam, giant Schnauzer mixes – and a cat, Bridget (who thinks she’s a dog). One big, happy family.
Monifa
Being born under the island sun, she is a jewel of the Caribbean. A Sagittarius in every sense, she has lived and learned through VI life. As an aspiring architect, she continues to grow, as well as quench her thirst for knowledge and achievement.
Hello out there! I am Monifa; a nineteen year old sophomore at the University of the Virgin Islands. Before coming to work at McLaughlin Real Estate, I worked for the Dept. of Health and Dept. of Justice under the VI Government. I also thoroughly enjoyed my high school days involving myself in various activities such as school government, peer counseling, and music and the arts.
Aside from learning new things here at McLaughlin Real Estate, I also enjoy writing poetry and short stories, spending time with my friends and family, and of course watching television. I “devote part of my life” to another part time job at Caribbean Cinemas as a concessionist. I shovel popcorn, pump soda and sell candy. Between you and me, that may be fun, but McLaughlin, Arguin & Curreri Real Estate offers more of an opportunity to learn new things. They’re great people to work with.
Unlike my fellow CaribCat felines, I have no other experience in real estate except my time spent at this company. However, I think it’s an interesting field of work. Comically speaking, I admire anyone who dares to venture into it. I’ll be leaving in August to continue my studies at Florida A&M University’s School of Architecture, but I’m glad we had this chance to talk. Nice to meet ya! Keep on networking!
Tom
After sailing in the Virgin Islands on our 41′ Morgan Out Islander for 5 winters, my wife and I decided to get serious about living down here. In 1992 we sold the Morgan, and bought a 1986 Irwin 43′ floating condo with all kinds of comforts and electronics. It was lying right here in the BVI, so we didn’t need to bring it very far. In December 1993, we pulled up stakes from Massachusetts and shipped 28 boxes of stuff to our boat. We’ve lived aboard since, enjoying the ability to be “on the water” at all times, to move our view, whenever we get bored, and take off for long sailing weekends just by pulling the hook! Our Rottweiler, Kira, enjoys the boating life, as do our cats, Gabriella and Zoe (they’ve even become famous!)
I’ve been in real estate since 1963, running my own brokerage business first for 13 years, and then getting into investing with partners. We owned a lot of big apartment complexes west of Boston, and made some money until 1988. Anyway I got 5 kids through college (the 5th on May 28th of this year, finally!) You probably know the rest. I did a few years of commercial appraising , also, so when I got here, I went looking for a part time job in real estate. Having been a computer freak since owning my Apple + in 1980, graduating to a Mac in 1986, I was delighted to find another nut in Frank McLaughlin. Together, we’ve had a fun time learning the publishing business, and applying it to appraising and Selling (advertising, direct mail, brochures, and now the WWW!)
Frank
I sailed to the Virgin Islands from Barneget Bay, New Jersey in 1966 as a “last adventure before settling down to real life” kind of thing and have been on St. Thomas ever since.
Originally in the broadcasting business I continued that career at a local radio and television station until the early 70’s. I then switched to Real Estate and through the years have been able to work in all aspects of that field from sales to development. Affiliated companies are McLaughlin Arguin & Curreri Realtors, McLaughlin-Anderson Vacations, McLaughlin Management and Appraisal Associates.
Ten – twelve years ago we started using computers and today I sometimes wonder if I’m in the Real Estate business or the computer business. We’ve made great headway in recent years through desktop publishing for our marketing and appraisal efforts. We offer brochures on all our properties customized for cooperating brokers. Getting on the Information Superhighway gives us an opportunity to do both. Although the emphasis is on real estate today, we hope to bring you information and products that we find of interest here in our part of the world. Look for future pages on our CaribCat Race team starring the crew aboard the J-29 we race locally as well as products to buy that are unique to this part of the world.
As for family... I met my wife Lynda here in the islands and we’ve raised four children. Two (twin girls) are still in college (so I’m looking for a part-time job) while the oldest and only boy, Brendan..er Maddog, works with me in all of the businesses.
Now, with CaribCat we feel like we’re really in the publishing business and look forward to our”book” featuring homepages on all aspects of life in the Virgin Islands.