Robert “Bob” Brownlee, Bob’s Barricade Name Dies at 86

Robert Brownlee believed that the original Bob behind Bob’s barricade, the Orange Street barricade commonly seen in Florida, had died decades ago. his family said Tuesday.

Brownlee, of Plantation, was 86 years old and had two children, he said.

“He got a big thrill out of saying he was ‘Bob’ from Bob’s Barricade,” said his son Robert Brownlee Jr. of Naples. “I can’t say my name is on there.”

The elder Brownlee “loved people, he loved being out there. That’s in his personality and being out there in front of the public,” his son said.

“He loved his family, he loved the pioneers of the barricade business,” said the younger Brownlee. And when asked the question “Who’s Bob,” Brownlee Jr. said he was confident that “there’s probably a Bob out there somewhere.”

Brownlee told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a 1992 interview.

He said he sold the company and its famous name several years ago in the 1970s to James A. Rider, former chairman of Rider Systems, and later sold the company again to Alan Chesler of Miami. Ta.

Chesler’s business partner told an Orlando television station in 2016 that he had owned the company for 40 years at that point, and that many of his managers and supervisors over the years were named Bob, and there was a certain ring to it. He said he kept his name. .

“When people think of organizations, they think of Kleenex, and when people think of barricades and barrels, they think of Bob’s Barricades,” co-owner Happy Alter told the television station.

In 1975, the elder Brownlee purchased a small safety light company in Georgia and named it Bob’s Safety Light, his son said. In the 1980s, the company was sold to Waste Management, according to his son.

In 1992 he founded his third company, ABC Barricade. According to his son, the company was sold in 1999.

“I wanted to be the first in the phone book to tell the truth,” the elder Brownlee said of the decision to name the Sun Sentinel ABC in 1992.

He told the newspaper in a 1992 interview that in 1967 he worked as an unpaid police detail at a construction site for $2.50 an hour.

“You’ll see trucks pull up to the scene with barricades loaded in the back,” Brownlee told the newspaper at the time. “I thought it was good business. I went home and built it in my backyard. It wasn’t perfect, but it was okay.”

That summer, he built 25 barricades. Two years later, with 12 people on his payroll, Brownlee quit his police career.

Although he wasn’t the first in the barricade business, he was the first to give it his name – Bob’s Barricade – and said there was a phone number on the bottom panel of the barricade. As a result, there was no need to advertise and there was name recognition.

“It was kind of a catchy name,” Brownlee told the newspaper.

Today, Bob’s Barricades and their flashing orange and white traffic barricades are still seen on streets across the state.

Brownlee was born in Pittsburgh and moved to Miami-Dade as a teenager on her own, moving in with her older sister. He joined the Marine Corps after high school and immediately began a police career, according to his daughter Paula Brownlee.

She described her father as a “loving father, loving husband, loving grandfather” and “very smart when it came to the barricade business.”

Viewing will be from 4 to 7 p.m. at Greg L. Mason Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 10936 NE 6 AVE., Miami. Burial Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 3716 Garden Ave., Miami Beach. Interment services will follow at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery, 11411 NW 25th St., Doral.

In addition to Brownlee’s daughter Paula and son Robert Jr., he is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Brownlee; daughters, Noreen de Ontofrio of Ellijay, Ga., and Patricia Turner of Hollywood; son Stephen Brownlee of Miami Shores;

He is survived by two grandchildren and a third has passed away.