2022 REALTOR® 500 HALL OF FAME

Based Outstanding Contribution to the Real Estate Industry

Liz Slager Summit Sotheby’s Intl.

Alan Smith Selling Salt Lake

Dallon Smith Holmes Homes Realty

Janice Smith Coldwell Banker

Jessica Sorenson Zander RE

Scott Steadman Windermere RE

Lee Stern Keller Williams

Dawn Stevens Presidio RE

Jessica Terry Century 21 Everest

Michelle Todd Exit Realty Plus

Shelly Tripp Coldwell Banker

Annie Trujillo Keller Williams

Justin Udy Century 21 Everest

Mike Ulrich Ulrich Realtors ®

Tricia Vanderkooi Summit Sotheby’s Intl.

Amy Volcic Summit Sotheby’s Intl.

Chad Wagstaff Century 21 Everest

Charisse Walker Equity RE

Vanessa Wand Windermere RE

Lewis Weaver Real Broker

Tracy White Weekley Homes

Craig Whiting Prime RE Experts

Jessica Williams Presidio RE

Rachel Williams Top Equity Realty

Bree Winegar Cannon & Company

Dave Winters RE/MAX Assoc.

Dawn Wolfe Engel & Volkers

Matt Wolfe Engel & Volkers

Ian Wood Three Door RE

Lisa Woodbury Windermere RE

Rachel Wray Eliason Keller Williams

Thomas Wright Summit Sotheby’s Intl.

Jennifer Yeo Presidio RE

Tamara

Zander RE

Victim or Victor?

People are going to tell you what you are and what you aren’t. According to Ben Kjar, there are key moments when we can choose to pause and come back as a victor – to come back with kindness.

By Dave Anderton

Ben Kjar was only eight years old when a grown man in the grocery store checkout line made a scene about how “someone who looked like that” could dare to go out in public.

Born with Crouzon syndrome, a genetic craniofacial condition that distorts the shape of the head and face, Ben was different from other children. People often joked that Ben looked like Sloth, a misunderstood “monster” in the 1985 movie, The Goonies. Yet contrary to what we see in movies, Ben’s face was not the work of a makeup artist.

Life can be cruel for the few people that are born with Crouzon syndrome. It affects the way a person breathes, the way they eat, the way they live, and – most noticeably to others – the way they look. They often have to undergo numerous reconstructive surgeries.

Ben remembered one surgery where his cheek was removed to reconstruct his face. “The mid part of my face just wouldn’t grow to keep up with my lower face and with my forehead,” Ben said. “The doctors would go in and take bones out of my hip and put them in my face.”

For Ben, the hardest part of growing up with Crouzon syndrome wasn’t the numerous doctor visits and surgeries, but the way some people, like the man in the grocery store, reacted to his physical appearance.

“I didn’t want to be different,” Ben said. “I wanted to be normal. I wanted to walk down the hallway and not stick out. In my young mind I tried to physically figure out a way to remove my face, because life would be good then, life would be better if I could get rid of it,” he recalled at this year’s Realtor® 500 event. During these trials, Ben had one thing going for him –extraordinary parents. Instead of coddling or sheltering Ben from the outside world, they taught him to embrace himself, work hard, defy the odds, and make a difference with his life.

In junior high school Ben found a passion in wrestling. He went undefeated from 7th grade through 10th grade. By the time he finished high school, Ben was a three-time state champion at

Viewmont High, a 5A school, earning a 121-6 record. He went on to wrestle at Utah Valley University, where during his senior year he became the university’s first ever All-American, finishing fourth in his weight class at a national tournament.

“Stand on your feet,” Ben said. “People are going to tell you what you are and what you aren’t. They are going to tell you that you can’t do something. And you’re going to defy the odds and you’re going to say, ‘Oh yeah, watch me.’”

After college, Ben went on to own a fitness gym and worked at a company converting gasoline-powered vehicles to compressed natural gas (CNG). Today, he is a real estate investor in multifamily rentals, storage unit complexes, retail properties, and single-family homes. Ben and his wife, LaCol, are the proud parents of three beautiful, adopted kids who are four years old and younger.

Ben’s lasting message is to “come back with kindness.” When someone says hateful things, he said, it’s unnatural to respond with kindness. “When you hit me, I want to hit back,” he said. “But it’s also a moment of choice. Everyone is going to be angry, but you can choose to pause five seconds, five minutes, or five days and come back as a victor. Come back with kindness.”