In 1954, Maryvale became one of the most ambitious projects of his career. It was John’s idea not just to build a large number of homes in a specified area, but to include land for parks, schools, and to fulfill other community service requirements. His foresight and ability created affordable homes with quality features and family appeal. These earliest efforts set the pace and established the goals John would follow throughout his career.
Named to honor his wife, Maryvale rose from the farmland west of Phoenix, and it is for this community that John F. Long is best known. He built more than 30,000 homes in greater Phoenix during this segment of his career, donating countless acres of land to the community and to county, state, and federal governments.
Mr. Long's fully equipped testing and research laboratory produced many new building methods, systems, and materials. He was the first to develop the use of modular mass production techniques such as component assembly of roof trusses, wall sections, and custom-designed cabinetry, assembled at the site, which cut construction time.
Mr. Long credits his success to hard work and common sense. His attention to up-to-date methods and newest materials, as well as water and energy efficiency, all added up to quality affordable housing. In 1982, he was inducted into the Housing Hall of Fame. His company, John F. Long Homes, built and sold the twelve millionth VA home in 1987. The U. S. Administration of Veteran Affairs presented awards to him and to the home-buying veteran.
In 1988, John F. Long Homes was chosen by the U. S. Department of Energy to develop, construct, and test a demonstration model home that featured roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. From this experimental start, Solar One became the world’s first solar subdivision in the United States where all electrical needs are provided by the largest ground-mounted PV array. Engineers and energy experts worldwide have acclaimed the remarkable success of this project.
John served the wider community on the Phoenix City Council, Maricopa County Board of Health, as a trustee for Glendale Union High School District, and on numerous other boards and civic committees. In the early 1970s, when community leaders were anxious to rejuvenate the downtown area, moving the Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center became a priority. Mr. Long provided a complete new facility, at cost. His unique donation of labor and materials to fill potholes on 550 miles of Phoenix streets is legendary. So are the twenty-one townhouses he donated to the Phoenix affordable-housing program for young couples and elderly persons.
John’s community philanthropy began very early. He was named Citizen of the Year in 1957 for donating land, money, and construction costs toward a variety of needed causes. John believes that Arizona has a unique heritage, unknown to most newcomers and students. Because he sees the importance of educating these groups, he is an extremely generous donor to the Arizona Historical Society Museum at Papago Park and other historical organizations in the state.
In the early 1990s, John was inducted into the Arizona Businessman’s Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was chosen to carry the Olympic torch as it passed through Phoenix en route to Atlanta. In November 2000, he became the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, chosen by WestMarc, which honored him for exemplary service through his contributions to the lifestyle of western Maricopa County.
John never lacks innovative ideas nor does he waver in his generosity. In 1991, he redirected his energies to commercial properties. By 1999, John F. Long offered the City of Phoenix the grazing lease on 37,000 acres of state trust land toward a planned Sonoran Desert Preserve in the north Valley. Next to benefit was the City of Peoria, to whomhe donated eight square miles for community development. For the millennium, Mr. Long is interested in coordinating a fifty-mile corridor of recreational trails and parks through Avondale, Phoenix, Glendale, and Peoria. He also envisions development of a hi-tech business corridor along the outer Loop 101, on a site of approximately 1,000-acres owned by his company.
The John F. Long Foundation grants are substantial in their generosity: the sixty acres of land for the Maryvale Baseball Stadium that opened in 1998; the $1.5 million to renovate the fourth floor of Maryvale Hospital to create a birthing center; and the $2 million in land given to the Arizona Baptist Children’s Service to create a Family Development Institute.
John and Mary Long were married more than fifty years at the time of her death in 1998. Their family includes two daughters, Manya and Shirley (Tot), a son Jacob (Jake), and four grandchildren.
Mr. Long credits his earliest days, between 1928 and 1930, as a Phoenix Gazette paperboy at Central Avenue and Jefferson, with teaching him the responsibility that helped shape his outlook on life. Today, after leading the field in construction innovation and building homes for thousands of Arizonans, John F. Long still says, “I certainly don’t see myself as anything out of the ordinary.” The West Valley community, recipients of much of his generous philanthropy, and all citizens of Arizona, see it otherwise.
