Robert F. Brown

Bob Brown likes to stay in touch.  He corresponds via email with his basketball coach from Perkins High in Sandusky.  He was saddened to learn a week or so prior to this writing that his high school tennis coach had passed.  He still reads his hometown newspaper, The Sandusky Register, on-line.  He’s also in touch with guys he used to work on the park service crew at Cedar Point, keeping the place looking good, picking up trash, setting up events, squeegeeing the midway after it rained.

“Dad’s rule was, you start a job the day school lets out and you keep working until the day school starts.  So that’s what I did at Cedar Point, from my high school sophomore year to the summer before my second year of law school.  It was good work, hard work.  I remember the Budweiser Clydesdales coming to parade up and down the midway.  Those horses were awesome.  Some of us led the way for them, and the rest of us followed behind with shovels.”

Bob grew up a Browns/Indians/Cavs fan.  He captained his high school basketball and tennis teams.  He played basketball in four leagues until a hip replacement at age 43.  His late parents were long-time educators for the Sandusky Public Schools.  He says he gets his work ethic from his father.  His mother instilled a sense of empathy.  Their divorce is likely the most difficult challenge he has faced.

“I was 14, my sister was 13.  We wanted to stay in the house where we grew up, and we really didn’t want to go to a new school.  For us to have that, Mom sacrificed.  She had a job opportunity in another part of the state, so we stayed in Sandusky with Dad.  Both parents loved us dearly, but it was toughest on Mom.  I think I grew up a little sooner than I might have otherwise.”

Bob met Toni on a blind date arranged by mutual friends. They have two grown daughters, Alex, who is an Intervention Specialist with the Loveland City Schools, and Carly, who works as a veterinary tech and serves as the family’s official “Dog whisperer." Both girls are proud Miami grads, just like their dad, although Alex did marry an Ohio University alum.

These days, Bob plays tennis four times a week at Harper’s Point.  He likes working in the yard, gardening, then having a beer.  He loves OSU football.  He’d like to travel more.  He enjoys people and describes himself as laid back.

The joy for him in his work as a business lawyer is in watching his clients’ companies grow, being a part of that growth.  “The thing I like most is the feeling with my clients that we’re in this together.”