DOBBINS HEIGHTS — The last surviving founder of Richmond County’s youngest municipality has passed away.
Robert Broady died Thursday, July 4, at the age of 86.
Broady, a Navy veteran, was elected to the first Dobbins Heights Town Council following its charter in 1984. He served alongside Paul McLendon, B.F. Diggs and Channie McManus, with Halbert Jackson as the first mayor.
In 2015, Broady — along with McMannus and Gracie Jackson — was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.
Broady was honored earlier this year at the town’s 40th anniversary celebration.
Click here to read more about the anniversary.
“Broady, blessed with vision and patience, had dreams decades ago for Dobbins Heights,” reads a memorial to the leader on the town’s Facebook page. “Some were achieved early. The most ambitious of those plans are now beginning to pass.”
At the 40th anniversary, Mayor Antonio Blue recalled Broady’s goal of having apartments built in the town.
“Nobody could see that vision,” Blue said, adding that the Rockingham Housing Authority was granted $2.6 million last year for such a project. “It took 40 years, but they’re coming.”
“A complete history of Richmond County’s towns will always include Robert Broady, Jr.,” concludes the town’s post, “a remarkable man who believed in the power of citizens to work together and make their own lives better.”
CORRECTION: This story has been edited to provide the correct age of Mr. Broady in the headline and in the story. 8:00 p.m. 7-9-24.
