Richard Mark Alter loved chasing the deal.

Once, he and his wife were in Paris and planned to take a monthlong respite in the south of France. But on the day they were set to leave, Alter told his wife to go on without him. He would catch up with her the next day.

Alter, the president and CEO of the real estate investment firm Manekin Corp., was in the middle of negotiations with a French company, and the deal was going badly. So he stayed behind — and stayed behind again, and again, for 10 extra days — to keep conversations going. When the couple returned to Paris, he brought his wife to visit the company’s headquarters.

“He was tenacious with every single deal,” Rosalie Alter said. “He saw it through until it went to fruition or it died.”

Tenacious — an appropriate word to describe Richard Alter at every stage of his life, she said. In recent months, he was tenacious in the hospital and with his doctors. He asked for all kinds of statistics about his treatment options. Everything “was in terms of business percentages,” his wife said — perhaps because he worked until the day he died.

Richard Alter, also a prominent member of Baltimore’s Jewish community and a proud father and grandfather, died July 17 of cardio-renal failure. He was 81.

He was born June 6, 1944, the oldest of three children born to Irving and Lucille Alter. He and two sisters, Mary and Kathy, had a traditional Jewish upbringing in Mount Washington, Rosalie Alter said.

Richard Alter’s early life was consumed by sports. Naturally competitive, he picked up tennis in his youth and excelled. He only gave up the sport to pursue lacrosse at Baltimore City College, where he was an immediate standout as goalie. He went on to play for Brown University, where he studied political science. During his senior year, he was named All-American, All-Ivy and All-New England.

The U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in 1966 also designated him Outstanding Player of the Year, and he was later named to Brown University’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

He graduated in the midst of the Vietnam War and enlisted in the Air Force Reserve to avoid going overseas, his wife said. He helped deliver children as a medic at Andrews Air Force Base. Later, he regretted not going to Vietnam, especially after seeing his son gain fulfillment from his service for the Israel Defense Forces, Rosalie Alter said.

Richard Alter then attended law school at the University of Maryland, graduating in 1970, and had a brief first marriage that produced two daughters, Jamie and Kelly. He joined Manekin, then a family business, in 1971, and handled corporate operations.

The next year, he met Rosalie (then Kershman), when he was called to proctor a law school exam she had to make up. A little while later, one of Rosalie’s friends told her she intended to set Richard up with another one of her girlfriends, and Rosalie didn’t object. The next day, her phone rang.

“Why are you calling me?” she asked Richard, reiterating her friend’s plan to connect him with someone else.

“Did it ever occur to you I want to take you out, and not [the friend’s] girlfriend?” he replied. “You want to go or not?”

It was an “electric” relationship from the beginning, Rosalie Alter said. The two weren’t lovey-dovey, holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes all the time. They were funny and egged each other on. In public, they bickered just as much as they adored each other. They were in lifelong lockstep.

Rosalie Alter once joked — to her mother-in-law’s chagrin — that Richard wasn’t really Jewish until he met her. Judaism was a central part of their marriage and their life, and the two were heavily involved in Baltimore’s Jewish community. They often visited Israel, including on their honeymoon, and Richard Alter considered himself a proud Zionist.

He served on the boards of the Beth Tfiloh Congregation, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital and the Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel. He was also president of the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School and held various leadership roles in other Maryland organizations.

Richard Alter was heavily involved in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and worked with members of Congress on Israeli and Jewish issues. He felt it was important to share the history of Israel, his wife said.

“Despite being the CEO of a major company, Richard would give time whenever the AIPAC staff would ask to help brainstorm on ways to expand the AIPAC base and would go on whatever meeting or solicitation we asked of him,” Tara Brown, AIPAC’s director of development, training and education, wrote in an email to colleagues after his death.

“He cared deeply about Israel, the Jewish community, and the people in his life — of which so many of us are blessed to have been.”

Richard Alter was named president and CEO of Manekin in 1987, the same year his son, Zach Alter, was born. In the years following, he expanded the business to employ more than 150 people and reach new markets.

Manekin has footprints all over the state, and some of its projects may sound familiar. In retail, the group worked on the Belvedere Square Shopping Center, Anchor Square Shopping Center and McGaw Plaza in Columbia. Its industrial and office projects include Charles Center South, Commons Corporate Park in Hanover, the Aberdeen Logistics Center and the Mid-Atlantic Commerce Center in Jessup.

He worked all the time, but he prioritized spending time with his children. Every night, he’d walk in the door and announce, “Zach man, Zach man, your daddy is home!” and his young son would run into his arms.

Richard Alter made friends and colleagues across the real estate industry, and he did so “with a distinctive and unique style,” said Tom Bozzuto, a real estate developer and friend.

“Whether as Copley partners, or as part of a team attempting to get control of the land that later became Harbor East; whether working on his land development at Bulle Rock or supporting the same political candidate; or simply two guys trying to get their mutual friend to exercise, being with Richard was like all the best things in life — enjoyable and enlightening,” Bozzuto said.

Richard Alter helped teach his son about real estate, and Zach Alter joined Manekin after his military service. He still remembers his father’s advice: “He said that leasing apartments is a sales skill, and sales is as translatable a skill as you can find. If you can sell, you can fundraise, you can lease, you can negotiate.”

Richard Alter also traveled with his family all over the world, and when grandchildren entered the picture, he shared Jewish traditions and stories with them. He’d sometimes show up unannounced to his children’s homes just to hang out with his eight grandkids, who called him Saba.

Some put together tributes to include in the memorial booklet for his service.

“How fortunate am I to feel such sadness, because doesn’t it also mean I had something so profoundly good?” wrote granddaughter Anna Pope. “A grandfather who built a family where love overflows and where relatives are not just family but best friends, companions, and the people I lean on most.”

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