In Death, Brandon Old-Timer Bob Dykes Remembered as a Town ‘Pillar'

Brandon lost a pillar today with the death of Robert Lee “Bob” Dykes Sr., an architect and dad remembered for his passion and strength for building family ties and community connections.

Dykes suffered a heart attack June 22. He died today, at 8 a.m., said his son, Lee Dykes.

“I’ve always said there are two premier community service people in Brandon, Bobby Dykes and Julian Craft,” said B. Lee Elam, the long-time Brandon attorney, whose sign at the corner of Lumsden Road and Parsons Avenue often display snippets of community news.

“Bobby spearheaded the North Brandon Little League fields, among so many other things,” Elam said. “They wanted to name the complex after him but he refused. He was always so humble. They did, though, name a field after him.”

Indeed, Lee Dykes said his father was a man who received many plaques, awards and certificates during his decades-long involvement in the Greater Brandon community. He was president of the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce and president of the Brandon Rotary Club, for which he was still active.

In 1980, Bob Dykes received from the Community Roundtable, then known as the Presidents’ Roundtable, the Alice B. Tompkins Community Service Award. A year later, he received the chamber’s Key Citizen Award.

More important, though, to Lee Dykes and his sister, Tammy Jacobs, is the example their father set at home.

“I have my own business now, and a family, and for the life of me, I don’t know how a man can be involved in so many things, but every single night, at 6 o’clock, my dad would come home and we sat down, the phone got turned off, and we sat down as a family and had a dinner,” Lee Dykes said. “And we spent every night together.”

As the owner of the Oakfield Lanes bowling alley, Dykes kept his connection to family time activities, and to the town he had a big hand in helping to shape. As an architect, he started his own firm, Dykes and Associates, which today is Dykes Johnson.

“The community helped make him successful and that’s why he got involved with the community,” Jacobs said. “That’s how he met the people he met. Nowadays it’s called, ‘networking,’ but he came up here [to Brandon] when I was five and he got involved with a lot of different things, the Jaycees, the Masons, the Rotary. He was just a very active man and eventually he just made a lot of different business acquaintances and friends for life.”

D’Ann White started her 25-year tenure with the Brandon News in 1985, about 18 years after Dykes moved to Brandon. “He was one of the first interviews I ever did,” said White, who left the Brandon News in 2009 and is now the editor of Bloomingdale Patch. “I called him ‘self-effacing.’ He didn’t want to talk about himself. He was very humble.”

He also was, as White put it, “one of the pillars of the community.”

“He was active in the development of the community,” she said. “He represented what Brandon at its best is all about, community pride, a sense of commitment and a sense of family.”

Lee Dykes remembers well the establishment of the North Brandon Little League fields, near the Brandon YMCA on Kingsway Road.

“Somebody donated some land and some bricks and my dad drew in the blocks and a man named Gene Gentry helped put it all together,” Dyks said. “The community came out, and with all their labor and sweat and donated money, they made it happen.”

Gentry’s son, Jeff, remembers well his father’s friend, who later in Jeff Gentry’s life became his mentor, and encouraged him to join the Brandon Masons.

“It’s just a tough time,” Jeff Gentry said, about hearing of Dykes’ death. “I had just lost my dad two years ago. I remember Bob ridiing with me for a two-hour trip to visit my dad in his last few days. Bob always had words of wisdom and, if necessary, words of encouragement to get you back on the right road.”

Honorary Mayor of Brandon Lisa Rodriguez, who also is the marketing director for the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association, said Dykes and her husband, Sandy, were good friends. The building that houses both Center Place and the Brandon Regional Library was named posthumously for  Sandy Rodriguez, who also was instrumental in helping to shape the early growth of Brandon.

“Bobby goes way back in Brandon history,” Rodriguez said. “He was very active with the Brandon Masonic Lodge.  He was so involved for years and years with everything and anything going on with Brandon. He made things happen and he always tried to make things better for our community. Later on in life he took a back seat. His thing was to get out of the community limelight and let the young blood come in and do their thing. He was a firm believer in passing the torch down from generation to generation.”

As for Lee Dykes, he sees reminders of his dad, always, throughout the town of Greater Brandon.

“His handprints are everywhere,” Dykes said. “There’s not a corner you go by that you don’t see something he helped build. The Old Scogin’s store, a number of churches, the chamber of commerce, Center Place. He had a hand in all of this.”

Dykes said his mother has albums of newspaper clippings attesting to his father’s work in the community.

“He’s got an office back here as well and there’s a wall of awards and certificates and thank-you’s,” Dykes added.

And in that office, Dykes added, is a copy of a poem read during a roast given on behalf of his father. It reads: “Our community is better for all you have done. Bob Dykes, you are truly Brandon’s favorite son.”

Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. June 27 at the First United Methodist Church of Brandon, 120 North Knights Ave. Interment will follow at New Hope Cemetery, with Masonic Services from Brandon Lodge #114, F.& A.M. The family will receive friends June 26 from 2-4 p.m. at Southern Funeral Care, 10510 Riverview Drive, Riverview.