CHARLOTTE — Every now and then, the people at Allen Tate Realty say they get a call asking if Allen Tate is a real person.

Those callers will disappointed after this week. Tate died earlier in the week. He was buried Thursday.

But you can forgive them-- he's a bit of a tall-tale.

“I think what I will remember most is his dedication to his loves: to his church, to his family and to his community,” said Natalie English.

English worked with Tate in his time as chamber chairman and on the transportation board.

She and hundreds of others remember the 84-year-old Gaffney, South Carolina native as a true Boy Scout.

In his memorial service, one friend recounted the only item in his savings box was his old merit badges.

Friends say Tate learned to sell by selling ripe bananas and broken pottery at his father's grocery store.

He started his real estate company in 1957.

It’s since spread across the Carolinas.

“And he would have yelled at us if he saw us moping about it. He would have wanted us to get back and out and to keep doing some of the things that he helped us to start in this community,” said English.

“But just that twinkle in his eye as you went past his office. Even until a week ago, he'd come into the office a couple hours a day,” Pat Riley, Allen Tate COO said.

Outside of Tate's memorial service Friday, Riley called him a second father.

“He challenged everybody never to be satisfied,” he said.

Tate recently celebrated the opening of the last section of I-48, named after him for his decades of consensus-building on the project.

Not victory, nor old age would slow him down.

English recalled wanting to celebrate many times to get the same response: “He was like no. OK, like tomorrow. Here's what I need you to do.”

It was a sometimes a frustrating quality they say.

“But I'll tell you what,” said Riley, “We're a better community for it, we're a better city, we're a better state. We're a better real estate company.”

But it is refreshing to know there was man named Allen Tate.

“I'd like to think he wasn't a rare breed. I'd like to think that we all have that desire to do and to give and to be for others,” said English.

“The best thing that we can do for that man that we all love is to carry that baton onward and to have him look down and say, ‘You are making sure that that journey we started together will never end,’” said Riley.