Robert Charles Markey Sr.

Robert Charles Markey Sr., founder and longtime publisher of The Town-Crier, a community leader and benefactor and Wellington "Founder", passed away peacefully under Hospice care at 4:01 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013, after a long, courageous battle with Alzheimer's Disease. He was 80. The career of Markey, a New York native, Korean conflict veteran and proud, lifelong newspaperman, started at publications including The Brooklyn Eagle and New York World Telegram and Sun, moved onto The New York Times and ended with his sale of The Town-Crier - the Wellington / Royal Palm Beach area's first newspaper, which he founded in 1980 and sold in 1998. He then founded Palms West Realty and was its broker until retirement. Markey loved his Palms West Communities, especially Wellington, where he moved his young family in 1977. While an executive at The Palm Beach Post, he envisioned the future of the then tiny planned community of Wellington and by May 1980, had created The Town-Crier from his kitchen countertop. Family and friends would deliver the weekly door to door on Thursdays. The newspaper blossomed along with the community and expanded with editions in Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee Groves and The Acreage, Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach, Haverhill, Greenacres and Lake Worth. Bob Sr. and wife Patricia employed more than 60 people, added a newspaper press and printing operation and published twice a week for several years. All Markey family members - including his sons Brian and Bob II and daughter Patricia - and many close friends worked there over two decades. The office atmosphere was that of a large family and there was almost nothing Bob Sr. and Pat wouldn't do to assist their employees. Markey and a small group of community leaders started the Palms West (now Central Palm Beach County) Chamber of Commerce in 1984. Through his extremely popular opinion column, Stray Thoughts and editorials, Markey started an effort that would eventually give average Wellingtonians the right to elect members of the then local government, Acme Improvement District. Realizing Wellington should control its own destiny, he formed and supported the citizens group, Residents of Wellington, which spearheaded an effort that would result in the incorporation of Wellington as a municipality. Markey was named one of five people influential and important to Wellington history when his name was added to the village's Founders Plaque. Today, seven leaders have been so honored. Markey always led and supported efforts to better his communities - against a state effort to build a commercial farmers market in Royal Palm Beach, for construction of local hospitals and schools including Wellington High (of which county and state officials did not easily approve), for simple necessities like road widenings and traffic signals and through his writings, against a dump and institute for the insane. He spearheaded a drive that closed down the infamous Fred's Motel drug-dealing haven at Lantana Road and State Road 7. Bob Sr. wrote thousands of news stories about his Palms West Communities in 18 years at The Town-Crier, but was most proud of the 1,500-plus Stray Thoughts opinion columns he penned, touching many lives. Each week (and for several years, twice a week), he brought back memories of old New York, took sharp aim at criminals and politicians, welcomed to the world his grandchildren and proudly covered family and community milestones. He columns drew great emotional feedback in a pre-email era - many supportive and some critical. Everyone respected the man and his prose. He once invited transplanted New Yorkers to a social at the original Wellington Mall, where The Town-Crier was housed, and hundreds of people showed up. His newspaper covered the local news - good and bad- regardless of how it affected his business or finances. "He told it like it was - with few holds barred," said his firstborn son, Bob Markey II. "He was unafraid of tackling any powerful entity or big story." That included local governments, including Acme, which The Town-Crier discovered and reported that was operating an illegal toxic waste dump on public land; and the master developer, which tried to influence coverage with advertising dollars. As a result, The Town-Crier became one of the most successful, well read and honored community newspapers in the country. "He was honest to the core and believed in the good of people. He helped everyone he could," Bob Markey II said. "He lived for his family, his friends and his community and would do anything to better them." He wrote a book about his exploits in the newspaper business. Markey and his wife Patricia, who passed away Dec. 19, 2008, helped start St. Rita Roman Catholic Church in Wellington, which began meeting in a large trailer in Royal Palm Beach and briefly used the Markey family's organ for its Masses. They financially helped build St. Therese Catholic Church, also in Wellington, two decades later. Markey, a Democrat with liberal and conservative leanings, was a popular guest speaker at civic organizations - many of which he helped form or grow - churches and temples. He helped open Panther Run Elementary School and buried Town-Criers in its time capsule. He organized a huge Wellington-Royal Palm Beach community effort in 1992 to collect goods for and resupply the victims of Hurricane Andrew in south Miami-Dade County and spent time there helping the masses to recover. Markey also coordinated and led efforts to feed the needy and homeless on Thanksgiving holidays and at other times. "If someone came to him with some financial issue, he would just write them a check," Bob Markey II said. "They would promise to pay him back but ..." "He loved people." Markey played on the streets and rivers of New York City as a child of parents of modest means. Later, he reveled in telling New York stories, such as about the time he managed to bring the Hudson River Dayliner to a stop by crossing its path in a kayak, which he would carry home and store in his family's walk-up apartment, or sneaking into Columbia University's football stadium to watch young men compete with leather helmets. Markey volunteered to fight in the Korean Conflict alongside his brother Buddy, who was killed by a mortar. Stationed in Korea and mostly in the South Pacific, including the island of Kwajalein, he was a member of the Seabees, the U.S. Navy construction force. Markey created and maintained a Web site for his Seabees battalion, during the 1990s, bringing together many of his comrades. He studied at Northeast universities including Manhattan College, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Fordham and University of Rhode Island. Markey and family came to Florida from Uniondale, Long Island in 1973, after 13 years of selling mostly real estate advertising for The New York Times, where he learned journalism and creative writing from of the country's top writers. With a background in real estate and advertising in the "Mad Men" era, Markey operated a small advertising agency on Long Island, representing a school district and burgeoning firms. He also rode the 1960s-'70s slot car model racing craze, partnering with a friend in a slot car storefront raceway. He was a member of the Uniondale School Board and helped found and operate the Uniondale Badgers Youth Football League. In 1973, Markey organized an unprecedented community parade, celebration and honor of Uniondale's only returning POW, Sgt. Richard Perricone. Markey infuriated politicians and endeared himself to the public by limiting their speeches to 5 minutes and threatening to yank offenders off the stage. The small town event was covered by The New York Times. Moving his family to Central Florida to be close to Pat's parents, Markey was advertising director of the Evening Herald in Sanford in the mid-'70s. He helped run The Florida Catholic Newspaper out of Orlando, before becoming national advertising director for The Palm Beach Post. He loved photography and computers and brought The Town-Crier into the computer and pagination age. His children and wife developed their fondness of cameras and all things digital from Bob Sr., starting in their New York basement dark room. He loved to oil paint, especially landscapes, which lined his homes. Markey started Palms West Realty in 2000 and again brought most of his immediate family together in the business. For nearly a decade, he lived with Pat in Greenacres, moved back to Wellington for two years after her passing and most recently lived at Pacifica Senior Living (formerly The Cottages) in Greenacres. Markey was predeceased by his wife of 49 years. He is survived by daughter Patricia Bachi (husband Dan), sons Brian Markey (Janice), Bob Markey II (Lynda Eads) and five grandchildren: Daphne Markey, Collin and Devyn Bachi and Hunter and Sydney Markey. Funeral arrangements are being made through Palms West Funeral Home in Royal Palm Beach. A visitation is set from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22 (memorial at 5:30), funeral Mass at 11:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 23, at St. Therese Catholic Church on Lake Worth Road in Wellington and veteran's burial immediately afterward at the South Florida Veterans Administration Cemetery on State Road 7 south of Wellington. The Markey family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Hospice of Palm Beach County.