Robert R. Broadbent, 94, a longtime top executive of Higbee Co. in Cleveland who was one of key figures responsible for getting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum built on the coast of Lake Erie, died this morning in Vero Beach, Fla.
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Robert Broadbent CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Robert R. Broadbent, a longtime top executive of Higbee Co. in Cleveland, and also one of the key figures responsible for getting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum built here, died Monday morning in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 94.
Broadbent, who was born in Lisbon, Ohio, and went to school in Akron, worked tirelessly on development in Cleveland and also served on a number of civic boards across Northeast Ohio, including Cleveland Playhouse, the Cleveland Ballet and Kent State University, and numerous corporate and industry boards.
"He definitely was a pioneer in seeing the potential Cleveland had," George Voinovich, Ohio's former governor and U.S. senator, who was mayor of Cleveland in the 1980s, said in an interview Tuesday.
Besides working at Halle's and Higbee's during his four decades in retail in Cleveland, Broadbent is best known in the area for helping raise tens of millions of dollars in the 1980s and early '90s to get the Rock Hall built in Cleveland. It opened in 1995.
"He's one of the heroes of that," said Terry Stewart, the retired former director and CEO of the Rock Hall.
Former Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste went a little further. "We would not have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if not for Bob Broadbent and Albert Ratner," Celeste said in an interview.
While more than two dozen people were crucial to Cleveland being chosen as the site for the Rock Hall and then the museum actually being built, Broadbent helped raise $50 million to $60 million -- more than half of what was needed for construction, Stewart said.
Stewart credited Broadbent with realizing the economic impact and prestige that the Rock Hall would bring to Cleveland. "He really understood the significance of the project," Stewart said, noting that Broadbent turned to his numerous relationships in the city to raise the money.
It's impossible to know whether Cleveland could have lost the Rock Hall without Broadbent's involvement, he said, but it certainly wouldn't have gotten built without enough money.
"I don't know if there could have been anyone else who could have done that," Stewart said.
Greg Harris, the Rock Hall's current president and CEO, said Broadbent also influenced many benefactors and helped create the museum's first endowment.
"His support went beyond dollars and he continued to be an advocate for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame throughout his life. With his contributions, the Museum became a catalyst for Cleveland's growth," Harris said.
The Rock Hall has had more than 10 million visitors in the last 20 years, generating more than $2 billion in economic impact for the region, Harris said. "Robert's hard work and devotion will allow the Rock Hall to engage, teach and inspire for many years to come. He will dearly be missed as a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame family," Harris said.
Broadbent was also heavily involved with the launch of Kent State University's Fashion School and Museum, which opened in 1983. Broadbent led the national fundraising campaign for the museum after Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman donated their collection of designer clothes and antiques to the university.
"He was properly named with those broad shoulders," said Celeste, the former governor. "He didn't know how to say no. If something was important for the community, he would say yes and then he would put his broad shoulders to the test."
As with the Rock Hall, Broadbent led the charge for the Fashion Museum. "When I was preparing the dedication for the book celebrating the 25th anniversary of the museum, going over all the events and years of activities, one name stood out above all others -- Robert R. Broadbent," said Jean Druesedow, director of the fashion museum. "From the very inception of the museum, Bob recognized the potential of the establishment of the Fashion School and the Museum."
Broadbent was known to praise the Fashion School and Museum's founders, Rodgers and Silverman, for giving back so generously to the industry, Druesedow said. "I think that Bob felt a responsibility to ensure that legacy and to make sure that the museum and the school lived up to their potential. He was able to see more quickly than anyone else what we needed to accomplish and how we should go about it.
"It is difficult to express adequately the importance of what Bob did for the school and for the museum . . . Bob always had his eye on our future and for that we are most grateful," Druesedow said.
Voinovich, who got to know Broadbent when the politician was running for mayor of Cleveland, said Broadbent was a special kind of business leader. "He was a true believer in the private-public partnership." Voinovich added that Broadbent "had a good civic conscience" who believed that successful businesspeople "had an obligation to give their time to the community."
Broadbent was revered because people knew that if he said he was going to do something, like raise tens of millions of dollars, that he would do it. His ability to people behind his cause was a gift, Voinovich said. "He was authentic. He was the kind of person who made people feel good about themselves."
Celeste added: "I don't think I ever saw him without a smile. He was always smiling . . . He was very special."
Broadbent was nominated by Celeste to serve as a trustee on the board of Kent State, which he did from 1985 until 1994. He also served on the Fashion School's advisory board and was elected to the Fashion School's Hall of Fame in 1989.
After moving to Akron as a child, Broadbent attended Central High School, where he was a member of the National Honor Society and played varsity football, basketball, and baseball. He attended the University of Akron and worked a factory job at night at Goodyear Tire & Rubber to pay his tuition. He left Akron to join the U.S. Air Force in 1943.
During WWII, he served as an air force navigator and second lieutenant in the 379 Bombardment Group from 1943 to 1945. He was stationed at Kimbolton, 14 miles north of Cambridge, England. During 1944 and 1945, he flew 30 combat missions, of which 16 were as lead navigator with up to 1,000 planes following him and targeting ball bearing plants and oil refineries. In his first mission, roughly half of the aircraft were shot down.
His next-to-last mission, his son Bill Broadbent said, was part of the greatest mass air assault since the Normandy Invasion. It was launched against the entire system of German rail communications in Western Europe with planes from seven different commands. In recognition of his military service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with Four Clusters.
After returning from active military duty, Broadbent graduated from Akron U in 1946 with a bachelor's degree in business administration, and he responded to a blind newspaper classified ad for a personal assistant for a businessman.
The ad, as it turned out, was placed by industrialist and activist investor Cyrus Eaton, who had built enterprises in steel, coal, iron ore, railroads, lake shipping, rubber, paint, utilities and finance. Broadbent served as his personal secretary for three years.
At that time, Cyrus Eaton was a director of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and became chairman of the board in 1954. Broadbent traveled with Eaton by train to New York and Washington for meetings with businessmen, politicians and union leaders as a behind-the-scenes mediator. During the coal strikes in the 1940s, Broadbent got to know organized labor leader John L. Lewis, who president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960.
In 1947, Broadbent began a retailing career with Halle Brothers in Cleveland, and he later worked for McCurdy's in Rochester, N.Y., and then the Higbee Co., which had been founded in Cleveland in 1860. He left Higbee in 1973 to become president and CEO of Gimbel's in New York. During New York City's financial crisis in 1975, Broadbent convinced Mayor Abe Beam to repave Herald Square and renovate the subway stations at 34th Street.
After recovering from a stroke in 1976, Broadbent moved to San Francisco to become president and CEO of Liberty House Mainland, a department store chain in California. In 1979, he returned to Cleveland to become vice chairman, president and chief operating officer of Higbee's, and then became chairman and CEO from 1984 to 1989. When Higbee's was sold in 1988 to a partnership formed by Dillard's and the DeBartolo family, Higbee's was considered to be one of the last old line, private department stores, and was memorialized in the movie, a Christmas Story, in 1983.
In 1980, Broadbent was honored by the University of Akron as one of its outstanding graduates based on his contributions to the community.
In 1964, Broadbent and Bob Malaga, vice president of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, helped bring the Davis Cup Finals to Cleveland. Broadbent's interest in tennis also led him to become one of the founders of the Cleveland Racquet Club in 1964.
From 1984 to 1995, he served as a national director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which raises money for low-income housing. He also served as vice president and a trustee of the J.P. Murphy Foundation in Cleveland, serving for 36 years. The foundation provides grants for charitable, educational, scientific, literary and religious purposes.
Other civic organizations where Broadbent served as a trustee or board member include: University Circle, Inc., Northwestern Ohio Regional Development Council, Vocational Guidance and Rehabilitation Services, Cleveland Downtown Partnership, New Cleveland Campaign, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland Tomorrow, Cleveland Lakefront Development, Cleveland Roundtable, Downtown Partnership, American Retail Federation, Greater Cleveland Growth Association and the 34th Street Association (NYC). Additionally, he was a member of the Fifty Club (50 Ohio CEO's).
On the corporate side, he was a director of Cardinal-America Manufacturing, Metropolitan Savings Banks, Huntington Bank of Northeast Ohio and Physicians Insurance, which became PICO Holdings Inc.
Broadbent is survived by his wife of 66 years, Mary K. Broadbent, his son, Bill, and two grandchildren, Avery Broadbent, and William Broadbent, Jr.
Funeral arrangements haven't yet been announced.