FERNANDEZ, Robert (Bob)

The White Mountain Independent, Show Low, Arizona ~ March 9, 2009 Robert "Bob" Fernandez, 83, died March 4, 2009, at Seneca Hospital near his home in Chester, Calif., following a lengthy illness. He suffered from a rare brain disease that required multiple surgeries and left him partially paralyzed. Bob was the first major developer in the Pinetop-Lakeside area. Bob's Realty opened in a two-room log cabin on the corner of Stephens Drive and State Route 260 in 1960. It was the longest continuously run real estate office in Pinetop, finally closing its doors in the Pinetop Financial Center in March 2006. Bob was born in Miami Dec. 18, 1925. His dad, Joe Fernandez, owned and operated the Commissary Market, a grocery store. Bob graduated from high school in 1943 and enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he served as a top turret gunner on a B-24, flying missions over Germany in World War II. Following his discharge, he returned to Miami, but running the family store was not in the cards for him. He was an avid outdoorsman, gambler and entrepreneur. He married Jean Boucher, a former army nurse, in 1953. After several ventures, they moved to the White Mountains where Bob had hunted and fished all his life. Bob is best known as the driving force behind the development of Pinetop Country Club, but that was only one of many successful projects. With various partners, he developed Moonridge Estates, Ponderosa Park, Rainbow Lake Pines, Summer Haven, White Mountain Country Club Estates, White Mountain Club Village, Pinetop Country Club Village, Pinetop Country Club Vista, Pinetop Financial Center, Cinder Mountain and Bent Oak. In 1967 he and partners formed FLEX Corporation that negotiated federal land exchanges in Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oregon and Nevada. Bob and his wife, Jean, left FLEX to form their own corporation, Land America, through which they bought small parcels of private land within federal lands and exchanged them for forest lands near developed areas. From Bob's youthful business venture, a "worm ranch" in Miami, he built a multimillion dollar real estate business. When his health began to fail, he and Jean moved to California, leaving the business operations in Pinetop to his friend and associate, Dick Becker. Bob is survived by his wife of 56 years, Jean; his sister Pat Tameron of Phoenix; and his sister Gloria Purlia of Alpine, Calif. Another sister, Celia Griffin of Salinas, Calif., preceded him in death. Private services in California are pending; no services are planned in Pinetop.