Always a businessman

Business had been on Bob's mind since he was
teenager. On a Saturday in 1980, a 15-year-old Bob,
the youngest of five, was sitting at the table at
dinner with his family. At the time his only sister,
Betsy, worked as a teller at Bank Ohio. She began
talking about two guys she counted deposits for who
were putting themselves through college by working
ice-cream trucks. When he was 19, he and a friend from
Lakeview High School started their own ice-cream-truck
business.

Bob worked as a welder during the day and worked the
ice-cream truck during the evening. He made more money
selling ice cream, so he quit the welding job. In
1987, his friend wanted out, so Bob bought him out.
During the winter, when Bob didn't run his ice-cream
trucks, he started going to Huntington Beach, Calif.,
where he lived with his aunt and uncle and sold cars.
Since his uncle wouldn't let him pay rent, Bob was
able to save a lot of his earnings.

In the spring of 1989, when Bob came home to Cortland
from California, there was a pizza shop for sale. He
bought Pit Stop Pizza because he couldn't continue
going to California.

Burned out after three years, Bob sold the shop and
used the money to "lay on the beach of Geneva" for
three months.  Then came the fateful drunken stroll
with the bad gyro.

Bob now owns Gyro Bob's Coney Island  in Akron. He's
also restoring two 1960 Mr. Softy ice-cream trucks
that he plans to run in Kent and wants to open a
permanent restaurant in the city.

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