Piha (Photo credit: ljw)

Respected Business Owner Morris Piha Dies

Morris Piha, the chairman and founder of Seattle real-estate firm, Morris Piha Real Estate Services, has died at the age of 79, following a brief fight with cancer. His career spanned 48 years. During that time, he obtained hundreds of Northwest properties.

In 1965, Morris "Morrie" Piha set his business up, working from the Hoge Building in downtown Seattle, in a small office. These days, the business has a spacious Bellevue office, over 30 staff and it owns approximately 130 properties. This includes the Radar Electric Building, the Redmond Overlake Square and the North Square Design Facility.

After his birth in Portland, Piha moved to Seattle at the age of 9. His parents, Vida and Samuel Piha, had emigrated from Rhodes (the Greek island). They had moved to join the expanding Sephardim Jewish community in Seattle.

Pira went to Garfield High School, then graduated from Washington University with an accounting degree. He served a couple of years in the US Coast Guard. In 1960, when he came back from service, he commenced his career in real estate, working for Herb Meltzer and M Ross Downs. Piha set his own company up 5 years afterward, and quickly acquired much of historical downtown Bellingham.

Piha's surviving relatives include his son, daughter, wife, 6 grandchildren, siblings Esther Kligerman and Victor S Piha and Rita Calderon, his mother in law. On May 17, the Sephardic Bikur Holim Synagogue was the venue for his memorial service. His body was laid to rest in the Sephardic Brotherhood Cemetery in Seattle.