- September 24, 2024
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Polk County banker Ernie Pinner fondly recalls attending Bob Blanchard’s Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City for an annual event where several hundred people gathered, ate barbecue and, notably, donated to a variety of causes. One thing that stood out was Blanchard, says Pinner, went out of his way to greet everyone like they were the guest of honor.
“He talked to you like you were the No. 1 person in the world,” says Pinner, who, along with Blanchard and others, formed Winter Haven-based CenterState Bank in 2000. “He knew how to make people feel comfortable and at ease.”
A World War II veteran born in the Great Depression on an Arkansas farm, Blanchard died Nov. 15, surrounded by friends and family on his ranch. He was 93.
In a wide-ranging business career, Blanchard’s accomplishments include having a big hand in launching and growing what’s now two of the biggest banks in the region: CenterState, which recently merged with South Carolina based South State Bank, and The Bank of Tampa. South State, which remains based in Winter Haven, has $37.71 billion in assets, while The Bank of Tampa has $2.45 billion in assets.
Blanchard’s first foray into launching a community bank was in 1984, when his friend A. Gerald Divers talked to him about plans for The Bank of Tampa. “He thought about it for a second,” Divers says, “then said, ‘sure, that sounds like fun.’”
'He talked to you like you were the No. 1 person in the world. He knew how to make people feel comfortable and at ease.' Ernie Pinner, CenterState/South State Bank
Divers, like Pinner, says Blanchard always put others around him first. “There aren’t a lot of people like that around,” Divers says.
Both bankers also say Blanchard was a go-to voice of reason, often giving advice and counsel on big loans and big decisions — without the drama and always keeping his composure. “He wasn’t a very vocal speaker, he was not as verbose as others,” Pinner says, “but when he spoke you listened.”
In recognizing Blanchard’s role in the bank’s success, in addition to his integrity and win-win ethos, The Bank of Tampa named an office after him: it opened the Blanchard Banking Center on 4400 N. Aremenia Ave. in June. “He was always fair and open when dealing with people,” Divers says. “People knew they could count on him to do the right thing.”
Robert Blanchard Sr. was born in Alicia, Ark., outside Jonesboro. He and his siblings grew up sharecropping on a small farm, according to his official obituary. He followed his older brothers into service, and was a radar operator in the U.S. Navy on the aircraft carrier USS Tarawa in 1945-1946.
After he graduated from Arkansas State, on the G.I. Bill, he relocated to Florida for a job with Allied Chemical selling agricultural chemicals during the orange boom of the 1950s. He later joined his father-in-law's company Rozier Machinery, the Caterpillar Tractor Dealer for central Florida. He moved the headquarters of Rozier from Orlando to Tampa in 1966 and was appointed CEO of Rozier in 1970. Blanchard, the obituary states, “pioneered the business of heavy equipment leasing at Rozier which led to astronomical growth and later became a key business model for Caterpillar worldwide.”
Blanchard had a role in several other business ventures. He privatized and ran electric utilities in Turks and Caicos in 1986 and Grenada in 1994. And he also was a lead developer in Ybor Square, a significant revitalization project in Ybor City.
Blanchard was involved in myriad business, civic and community groups. He was president of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Tampa Committee of 100, a trustee of University of Tampa, a Board Member of The Florida Aquarium, Community Foundation of Tampa Bay and the Tampa Metropolitan YMCA, among other groups.
Pinner says Blanchard did more of his giving back in private, often supporting causes, groups and people around town from the background, preferring to be anonymous. “He was a person,” Pinner says, “who really believed in addressing needs in the community.”
