Car dealer, philanthropist Bob Steele dies Friday BY PATRICK PETERSON ? FLORIDA TODAY ? August 6, 2010 Car dealer, philanthropist and community leader Bob Steele of Rockledge died Friday morning. He was 79.
Cause of death was not disclosed.
Steele founded Bob Steele Chevrolet in Cocoa in
1976. His son, Kevin, now runs the family business.
Steele was respected across the Space Coast for his business sense and philanthropy, and he was liked for his accommodating demeanor.
“Mr. Steele was a real down-to-earth man, a great businessman, a great friend and a better family man,” said Travis Kittleson, 30, a long-time local and NASCAR racer whom Steele sponsored for 10 years.
“You couldn’t ask for a better guy,” added Kittleson. “He’d greet you with a smile. He was a nice, warm person.”
Kittleson, whose father works at the dealership, fondly remembers Christmas parties and company picnics held by the family-oriented business. And he admired Steele for continuing to work hard into his 70s, when he easily could have retired to play golf, a game he loved.
“It was admirable that he showed up for work every day,” Kittleson said.
Steele was raised in the car business in Pennsylvania, where his father, Richard, was a “He likes to check on me,” Kevin Steele said in an interview last year. The family was not available Friday.
The dealership endured the recent recession without layoffs or reducing employee benefits.
Steele’s warm personality won friends even among his competitors.
“With his personality and the way he treated people, he was a just a class act,” said George Vincent, general manager of O’Donnell’s Quality Pontiac Buick GMC in Cocoa.
Steele contributed to schools, the Little League, the Cocoa Police fund and Brevard Community College.
“He was great community man and a great car man,” Vincent said.
Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at Divine Mercy Catholic Church in Merritt Island. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the church. Wylie-Baxley Merritt Island Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Contact Peterson at 242-3673 or ppeterson@floridatoday.com.Steele