Obituary: Bobby Landers, three times retired
Robert Daniell Landers, a man of easy-going informality who preferred to be
called simply
“Bobby,” died of pneumonia at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA, on June 8. A
long-time drycleaner and trade association leader, he was 72.
He grew up working in the drycleaning business that his father, Rupert, had
started in Atlanta in the 1920s.
“I remember clarifying tanks that had coal-stoked boilers and the wooden washers,” he recalled in a 1987 interview with National Clothesline.
Landers graduated from high school in 1952 and earned a business degree from
Vanderbilt University in 1956. He continued with the family business,
eventually buying it in 1968, then selling it in 1979, commencing what he
called his first retirement. At that time, the business consisted of two plants
and three dry stores.
He un-retired for the first time to become owner of Cleaners Care, a small plant
in Stone Mountain, GA, which he operated until 1985 when he sold it and began
his second retirement.
That retirement didn’t last long. In 1986, he un-retired again, heeding the call to become executive
director of the South Eastern Fabricare Association. He had served as president
of SEFA in 1975-76 and also was president of the Launderers and Cleaners Credit
Union from 1972-76.
During his six years as SEFA’s executive director, Landers was instrumental in developing a program of widely
adopted Spot Safe clinics. He also introduced Clean Team clinics for counter
sales training and I Comply workshops to teach OSHA rules to drycleaners.
Landers liked to work his sense of humor into otherwise serious programs. He was
known for his CRUD meetings
— Compliance Reduction Utilization and Disposition — a series he put together in concert with state hazardous waste regulators, R.
R. Street
& Co. Inc. and Safety-Kleen, and he would bill informal membership meetings to
discuss nettlesome problems as
“Whine and Wine” or “Bull and Beer” sessions.
His third attempt at retirement from the industry was somewhat more successful.
Even so, after leaving his post at SEFA in 1992, he continued involvement in
the industry as president of the Georgia Drycleaning Council, a group that
fought for state legislation to help drycleaners with liability stemming from
soil and groundwater contamination.
Landers’ helping hand extended beyond the industry. As a member of Macedonian Call
Foundation, he was integral to a program that provides cars for Baptist
missionaries in Georgia. He evaluated donated cars to determine what repairs
were needed, drove missionaries to and from the airport and helped them pick up
and return loaner cars.
He applied his legendary mechanical skills in Baptist mission programs both
locally and in Botswana, Guatemala, Venezuela and Cambodia.
On one mission construction project, the cement mixer was faulty and the crew
relied on Landers to keep it operating.
“They said he could remove a spark plug, clean it off and stick it back in before
the cement mixer missed a beat,
” his wife, Helen, told a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“Bobby liked tinkering with motors,” his lifelong friend, Tommy Clyatt of Atlanta told the Journal. “We’d be out fishing in the Gulf and he would take the boat motor apart — of course, we couldn’t move until he put it back together — to see if he could make it run one mile per hour faster.”
His retirement years did include some non-work-related activities. “He loved to plan trips,” his wife said in the Journal article. That might include a canoe trip on the
Edisto River, a church group
’s trip to the mountains during apple season or family camping vacations.
Recent trips were to Alaska and five nights on wilderness trails in the Grand
Canyon. The Grand Canyon trip with five younger men was grueling, said his son,
Mark.
“At 71 then, dad was carrying about 60 pounds of pack weight. He got so
dehydrated on day three and had heat sickness. We had to just hold up for a
day, put him in a cave and let him recover. We really were afraid for his life
that day.
”
The next morning, the senior Landers was the first one up, ready to hit the
trail.
In addition to his wife, survivors include another son, Daniell Landers of
Lexington, SC; a daughter, Lea Krueger of Pendleton, SC; a sister, Jeanne Nash
of Atlanta; and seven grandchildren.
Contributions in his memory can be made to Vincent Peng Melanoma Endowed Chair,
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425.
