There was indeed a future in Fairfax – and Til Hazel became the man who shaped it.

Hazel's law firm had been hired to acquire the land to build the Washington Beltway. He became an expert on zoning, acquisition, and eminent domain. Later Hazel steered Ted Lerner through the legal maze so the developer could build Tysons Corner Center and the Tysons II shopping, office and hotel complex.

In 1961 Hazel left the law firm. He soon became a county judge and, in his spare time, practiced zoning law. Hazel realized that Northern Virginia was changing, and he wanted to be a player, not an observer.

"A blind man could see the potential," Hazel says. "Fairfax was the frontier. It was open to ideas."

But Hazel saw possibilities that others couldn't and – more important – was able to turn them into bricks and mortar.

In 1972 he linked up with Milton V. Peterson and began developing communities like Burke Centre and Franklin Farm. By 1989 it was estimated that one of every six Fairfax residents lived on land that Hazel/Peterson developed. The company also built Fair Lakes, a 35-building office complex.

Til Hazel did more than build places fro Virginians to live and work – he also built the institutions that made people enjoy living there.

"His imagination is what drove development – not just land development but the cultural development of the region as well," say George Johnson, former president of George Mason University. Hazel was instrumental in acquiring land for the George Mason campus and marshaling the Northern Virginia business community to support the university's growth. He played key roles in the creation of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the Fairfax Symphony, and other community institutions.

Hazel also recognized the importance of crossing the Potomac to build regional cooperation. "It's a river, not an ocean," he notes. Hazel was the first Northern Virginian to serve as president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, which he still serves as a director.

Joel Garreau, author of the book Edge City, credits Til Hazel with doing "more to shape the Washington area than any man since Pierre L'Enfant." Garreau notes that the growth of Northern Virginia has vastly outpaced that of the District of Columbia and suburban Maryland over the past 20 years. Hazel built the foundation for that growth, according to Garreau.

Hazel is characteristically self-effacing. "I was fortunate to arrive in the world just as Washington was becoming the place to come," he says. "We've had a great ride."