George Overstreet
The McIntire School of Commerce has had the pleasure of commemorating a host of milestones over its 103-year history. And on April 10, it recognizes another: the 80th birthday of its beloved Real Estate Professor, George A. Overstreet Jr.
A member of the McIntire faculty for more than 40 years, Overstreet serves as the Walker Eminent Professor of Commerce and has taught generations of students through his groundbreaking courses in corporate financial management, finance, and perhaps most influentially, real estate investment.
Overstreet, whose popularity is matched only by his legendary dedication to students, long directed the School’s undergraduate Real Estate Track, and is credited with helping hundreds of students launch their careers in the fields of finance and real estate. In 2009, he was inducted into the Raven Society and elected to the society’s Governing Council the same year. Both the Z and Seven Societies have also recognized Overstreet for his exceptional teaching.
He is recognized widely for having produced a substantial body of research that includes numerous cases, monographs, and refereed articles. His extensive expertise in valuation measurement and management is a resource for private firms and in the use of operational research techniques in financial management. Overstreet’s work has appeared in more than a dozen leading academic journals, including Journal of the Operational Research Society; European Journal of Operational Research; Annals of Operations Research; Energy Economics; Journal of Risk and Insurance; Journal of Insurance Regulation; and IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Business and Industry. His research in credit scoring has received international recognition, and his research relating to Virginia’s film and wine production potential was acknowledged with letters of commendation from Virginia governors.
In the spring of 2018, he was one of six UVA faculty members selected to receive a 2018 faculty award from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, earning an Award for Excellence in Teaching, given to professors whose teaching embodies the Jeffersonian ideal of putting others ahead of self. In supporting his nomination for this award, one student noted that Overstreet’s “legacy will be to have instilled in his students honesty, empathy, and a passion for positively impacting communities.”
Later that same semester, the UVA Board of Visitors approved the establishment of the George A. Overstreet Jr. Distinguished Professorship.
Upon the establishment of the professorship, then-McIntire Dean Carl Zeithaml stated, “I think it is absolutely fitting that this professorship be named for George. He is a tremendous example of one person really affecting so many students and alumni and having a great, positive impact on the School and the University. No one is more deserving of such an honor.”
Overstreet continues to be an impactful force at the University. In 2021, when McIntire began offering the pan-University Minor in Real Estate, Overstreet served as one of its administrators, a fitting role, as the Commerce School’s real estate curriculum was created mostly from his work over the preceding decades.
When the White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate was launched in 2021, its first Director Drew Sanderford credited him with contributing important foundational additions to the field of study at UVA and at McIntire: “The new Center embodies the next step in a developing tradition of intellectual engagement with commercial real estate investment and the built environment at the University that dates back to Professor George Overstreet’s course in 1984.”
Please join us wishing George Overstreet the very best on his special day.
