Bob Glenn took a lot of joking from his Georgia friends about being a graduate of Auburn University. But he could take it.
A jokester himself, Glenn used the names of Hollywood actors when his daughter’s administrative assistant would ask him who was calling. “She’d say, ‘Brad Pitt’s on the phone,’ ” said Anne Fitten Glenn, the oldest of Bob’s three daughters. “In another life, he might have gone to Hollywood.”
As it was, Glenn returned to Atlanta after college to a vast array of friends and family he cherished in the town that he loved.
He loved to entertain his three girls and their friends. An avid guitar player, Glenn would play songs such as “Wake Up Little Susie” and other Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Beatles tunes when the girls had sleep-overs. The girls loved it.
“Sometimes he’d play for several hours,” said Anne Fitten Glenn, with the children begging him for more tunes. He’d even make up songs to teach them life lessons.
Bob Glenn kept family and friendship ties his entire life. “I don’t know many people who had more friends and no enemies,” said a cousin and best friend, Jimmy Alston. Glenn learned the importance of friendship and family as a child, playing baseball and football two or three times a weeks with friends from E. Rivers Elementary School, remembered Alston.
One of four sons of Anne Alston Glenn and John Fitten Glenn, Glenn for years would gather his family Saturday mornings and head for brunch to his parents’ home, along with his brothers and their families. “We have a huge family, and we all grew up together. It was great,” said Anne Fitten Glenn.
“I’ve never seen so many devoted friends,” said another daughter, Saunders Glenn Bohan, of how her father’s friends stayed connected to him up to his last day.
Robert James Glenn, 73, died peacefully Feb. 8 at his Atlanta home, surrounded by many of those friends and family. He had battled cancer, a rare form of sarcoma, for years, Anne Fitten Glenn said.
Glenn was a lifelong Atlantan, born May 7, 1942 at Piedmont Hospital. He went off to The Darlington School in Rome, Ga., for prep school and to Auburn University to study business.
After graduating from Auburn in 1964, he returned to Atlanta and began his business career at Printpack. In 1969, he went into the financial services business with Blyth and Co. Glenn joined Robinson-Humphrey Company in 1972. Over his 32 years there, Glenn helped take companies public, and he served on the company’s executive board and as vice chairman.
In 2004, he opened the Atlanta office of Morgan Keegan & Company Inc. and served as executive managing director. “He put Morgan Keegan on the map in a heartbeat,” said Alston.
From 2011 until his death, Glenn was director of the Equity Capital Markets group at Atlanta’s Raymond James & Associates. He served on the board of directors of Goodwill Industries of Atlanta, The Darlington School, The Lovett School and Leadership Georgia Foundation Inc., and on Emory University’s Board of Visitors and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church’s vestry. He and his family established financial aid scholarships at Darlington and Lovett and a character-education program at Lovett. A past president of Peachtree Golf Club and The Piedmont Driving Club, he also was on the advisory board of the Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island.
He also loved his dogs. He and his wife, Betsy, had Welsh Corgis named Bebe and Itchy. When the girls were growing up, one of the family’s golden retrievers was missing an ear. No one was surprised when Glenn came up with the perfect name: Vincent Van Go.
Glenn is survived by his wife, Betsy Glenn; daughters Anne Fitten Glenn of Asheville, N.C., Saunders Glenn Bohan of Virginia Beach, Va., and Amanda Glenn Brady of Atlanta; eight grandchildren, brothers Jack Glenn, Alston Glenn and Lewis Glenn, all of Atlanta, and several nieces, nephews, and godchildren.
A memorial service is planned at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Friday, Feb. 12, at 11 a.m. Private interment will be at Westview Cemetery. After the service, family and friends are invited to Peachtree Golf Club.
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