Above, Chris Coile
Chris Coile, a trailblazing real estate entrepreneur, rancher, fly fisherman, conservationist and lifelong musician, passed away on Thursday, July 31, in Sanibel, Florida, from complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 80.
“He was born attached to a small motor,” his mother, Peg Wallace, once said. “And that motor never stopped running.” That tireless drive, combined with his natural gift for persuasion and people, made Coile a born salesman who built thriving real estate businesses in the Baltimore-Washington-Annapolis area.
Coile grew up in Glen Burnie, Maryland, where his entrepreneurial streak showed up early. He sold Christmas cards and subscriptions to the Maryland Gazette, and shoes at Franklin Simon & Co. At Glen Burnie High School, he wanted to learn to pole vault, but the school had no program. So he bought a pole, built a sawdust pit, and became county champion, earning a scholarship to Penn State University.
At Penn State, he met his wife, Susan Schuyler, an artist and high school teacher. After a short stint managing a music store in Sarasota, they were headed to Maine when their car broke down. To pay off the $300 repair bill, Coile took a job selling business machines in Annapolis. He didn’t love it, and his mother nudged him to try real estate. In his first year, he sold 67 houses totaling $1.5 million–at age 23.
In 1970, Coile launched his first real estate firm, Chris Coile and Associates, Inc. in Severna Park, Maryland. Within a decade, it had 17 offices and hundreds of real estate agents (including his mother), and was featured in a Harvard Business School case study. At age 35, he sold the company to Merrill Lynch in one of the largest real estate deals of its kind. Coile stayed on to run operations east of the Mississippi.
At the peak of his corporate career, Coile stepped away. In 1982, craving adventure, he and Schuyler bought a 6,000-acre working ranch in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, complete with 125 mother cows, horses and mules.
“A person ranches because he wants to see the cows, touch his calves,” Coile told the Washington Post at the time. “You don’t do it to make a lot of money.”
The couple restored a homestead-era log cabin, built a six-bedroom guest lodge and launched a fly-fishing and big-game outfitting business. In the fall, he led elk hunting trips into the Bob Marshall Wilderness; in the summer, he took anglers on whitewater rafting trips. When he couldn’t find tents sturdy enough for his trips, he launched a canvas goods company, making custom tents, commercial awnings, luggage–even wallets.
Eventually, the pull of old friends and the thrill of a new venture brought them back to Maryland. In 1987, Coile reunited with his original management team to launch Champion Realty. More than 200 of his former agents immediately joined him.
Not long after, Merrill Lynch sued him for $17 million, claiming he violated the agreement tied to the use of his name. “Chris Coile is a famous name in Anne Arundel County and throughout parts of the metropolitan area–it means real estate,” a lawyer for Merrill Lynch told jurors at the trial. Ultimately Coile prevailed in court and celebrated by sending Merrill Lynch an oversized check for $1 in damages. Some jurors were so impressed by Coile’s testimony that they signed up for real estate courses with his new firm.
Champion grew rapidly, opening 20 offices and employing 700 agents across Anne Arundel and five Eastern Shore counties: Queen Anne’s, Kent, Talbot, Caroline, and Dorchester. The company introduced numerous industry firsts, including full-color print ads (“Champion Color”), and video tours for every listing. Coile also launched a mortgage company, a title company, an insurance agency, a property management firm and a real estate school that trained hundreds of agents who are still working today.
By 1996, Champion was one of the nation’s largest independent firms. Coile helped co-found the Realty Alliance, a trade group representing the 70 biggest brokerages in North America. In 1999, Champion merged with eight others to form HomeServices of America, which was acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Coile served as CEO of its Mid-Atlantic operations for six years.
Coile and Schuyler eventually settled in Sanibel, Florida, where they treasured views of the bay and visits from dolphins and manatees, and where Coile fished daily for snook, redfish and tarpon. Coile also took his fly rod to fish around the world–for bonefish and permit in Mexico, peacock bass in Brazil, giant trevally in the Seychelles, smallmouth bass in Canada, and trout in the rivers of Montana and Wyoming, which he called the most scenic on earth.
As president of the Coastal Conservation Association of Maryland, he became a powerful voice for protecting the Chesapeake Bay’s fragile ecosystems, believing that recreational anglers had both a right and a duty to shape environmental policy.
Coile had a lifelong love of music. A self-taught guitarist, he began playing at 13 and later toured with his band, Chris Coile and the Continentals, in the 1960s. A devoted Elvis fan, he kept performing into retirement—delighting crowds in both Wareham, Massachusetts, and Sanibel at the American Legion and George & Wendy’s Seafood Grille, and donating his CD sales to charity.
In their later years, Coile and Schuyler launched a family foundation, and Coile served on the board of F.I.S.H. of SANCAP.
Coile was preceded in death by his parents, Peg Wallace and Russell Coile; two brothers, Russell Coile Jr. and Ben Coile; and his wife of 58 years, who passed away on December 14, 2022.
He is survived by two brothers, Jon Coile of Shady Side, Maryland, and Andrew Coile of San Jose, California; his sister, Jennifer Coile of Hollister, California; three nieces and nephews, Courtney Coile of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Zachary Coile of Washington, D.C., and Simon Jane Coile Robrock of San Francisco; and four grandnieces and grandnephews, Nathaniel Roman and Meredith Roman of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Katherine Coile and Emily Coile of Washington, D.C.
A private service will be held in Sanibel.
Coile will be remembered for his boundless energy and drive, his warmth and sense of humor, his adventurous spirit, and his kindness and generosity to his family, friends and community.
