It’s not often that a local real estate business owner can say that they have been honoured to receive the same recognition or award as that of an ex-president of the United States of America. The first day of October was the day that Martin Cooper, from Harcourts Cooper & Co, was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship Award. The Paul Harris Fellowship was established in 1957 to honour the contribution that Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary International, made to the foundation and is one of the highest honours that Rotary International can present.

Martin was speaking at a mini-conference organised for his staff so they could benefit from some of the finest real estate speakers in the country when he was surprised by a contingent of Rotary support staff on the stage. Fay Freeman, president of North Harbour Rotary, stated that Martin was an outstanding leader who is making a difference in the North Shore community, someone who was worthy of joining well known people such as Jimmy Carter, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, US astronaut James Lovell and UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar and someone who provided selfless service to his community.

Last year Harcourts Cooper & Co supported over 430 sponsorships and events and those sponsorships and events helped raise over $1.2 million for the local community. Over the last 5 years that figure has crept up to over $4.5 million, with another $50,000 being provided from the sale of coffee and ice-creams through the Harcourts Cooper & Co charity coffee and ice-cream truck. He is also very proud to be on the board of North Harbour Rugby and Breast Cancer Cure. Martin’s commitment to giving back to the community that he lives and works in epitomises the Rotary values of ’Service before Self’ and many of the organisations he supports agreed. Nick Carrol, from the Takapuna Beach Series, said “Martin has a genuineness about him” and “I wouldn’t have thought that there would be too many local business people who have received such an honour” and Dave Gibson, from North Harbour Rugby, said “We’re so proud to have you on our Board” and “You’ve got a way with people and everyone speaks highly of you”. Chris Kennedy, CEO of Harcourts NZ, said that ‘Martin epitomises the Harcourts Values on doing the right thing, people first, being courageous and fun & laughter”. The Harcourts Cooper & Co team also agreed saying that Martin was “an inspiration, a mentor and a very special person”.

Martin was totally surprised by the award so was a bit quiet on stage but later in the day said “I’m not used to getting accolades for me personally. As the eldest of five I’ve always just done what needed to be done without getting any recognition so this was an exciting, if somewhat uncomfortable, moment for me. I’m going to sit back, watch the video and take it all in later tonight.”

Harcourts Cooper & Co has 19 offices across the North Shore, North West and Waiheke Island with over 500 team members. It has won the REINZ Middle Sized Agency Award for the last 4 years and won the inaugural Office Community Service Award this year. It is a member of NZ’s largest real estate company, Harcourts NZ, founded in 1888 which has been voted by Readers Digest as NZ’s Most Trusted Real Estate Agency for the last 6 years in a row.