DELRAY BEACH — Some men are blessed with long lives, and some are blessed with full lives.
Robert Hudson Neff had both.
He was born on Jan. 24, 1916, in Canfield, Ohio, and died here on July 24, at exactly 95½ years of age.
In between, Mr. Neff filled his days with personal accomplishments and a devotion to public service that, in later life, became a passionate resolve to see the city’s history honored.
As a boy in Ohio, he was one of Mahoning County’s earliest Eagle Scouts. At Ohio State University in the 1930s, he was president of the freshman class.
At 80, he won the Florida State Shuffleboard Championship.
He visited every continent except Antarctica, fished for rainbow trout in New Zealand, salmon in Alaska, and hunted elk in Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado.
Graduating from OSU with a degree in business, Mr. Neff began work as a salesman for the Sheaffer Pen Company, then went on to head five land development corporations in both Ohio and Florida.
On Dec. 21, 1940, he married Maxine Alice Dwiggins, and shortly after Dec. 7, 1941, joined the U.S. Navy, serving as an officer during World War II.
Mr. Neff first visited Florida in 1921, when he was 5 and his parents drove a Model T Ford to Miami.
In 1974, he came to Delray Beach.
“Maxine and I had been wintering at our apartment in North Miami when the area became too congested,” he once recalled. “We traveled north along the coast, exploring different locations to make a new home. Once we found Delray … we knew that we had found our new home. We really liked Delray’s small town atmosphere.”
And he came to love its history.
On Oct. 29, 2008, a marker was dedicated on South Ocean Boulevard honoring Sarah Gleason, Belle G. Dimick Reese and Ella M. Dimick Potter, whose 1899 donation of beachfront property is now the city’s municipal beach. Mr. Neff donated the money to purchase that marker.
In March 2009, he paid for a second marker outside the First Presbyterian Church’s Fellowship Hall.
He donated a marker at the renovated 1916 courthouse in downtown West Palm Beach.
In October, two more markers will be dedicated — at Delray’s Cason Cottage and Veterans Park, near the spot where pioneers once crossed the Intracoastal Waterway by barge — at a ceremony also honoring Mr. Neff.
An application for an additional marker at Bethesda Memorial Hospital is pending before the state Division of Historical Resources.
“Some people, when they retire, kind of cut things off, but he didn’t do that,” said Dorothy Patterson, archivist at the Delray Beach Historical Society, who worked with Mr. Neff to secure state certification for the markers. “He was still interested and creative, and he reached out to people.” She laughed. “He didn’t mind sort of driving you, either. He used his age to get things done.”
Even at 95, Mr. Neff kept planting the seeds for projects he would never see blossom.
His final effort was an arboretum of native trees on the grounds of the Abbey Delray retirement community. The first tree, an avocado, was planted in April.
“He was vibrant, exciting, full of life and jovial,” said his daughter, Jennifer Neff, of Canfield. “And he never lost his sense of wonder.”
In addition to Jennifer Neff, he is survived by Maxine, his wife of 70 years; daughters Holly Broom of Edwardsville,Ill., and Candace Neff of Lantana; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
He was buried July 29 in Canfield.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Delray Beach Historical Society, 3 NE First St., Delray Beach, FL 33444, or Hospice-By-The-Sea, 1531 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33486.
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