Classmate spotlight...

He drove the MG..you just knew back then that Bob had a smart head on his shoulders.

Bob McKee, from Fords, knew what he wanted and he knew how to accomplish it while enjoying life at the same time. After graduation, Bob attended Miami-Dade Community College in Miami, Florida. It's there that he became hooked on the Florida lifestyle. On summer breaks he would return to Seaside Heights to work the concession stands on the boardwalk. After receiving his AA in education, Bob decided to become an entrepreneur on the Seaside Heights boardwalk from 1972-1984, operating six locations yearly.

His sense of successful business didn't end there. When he arrived in Florida in 1984, Bob took the opportunity to buy into a auto accessory store franchise called The Driver's Seat. Started with one store and then opened three more. Eventually he purchased the two pre-existing stores. Bob founded Palm Beach Motoring in 1997 as a catalog company to car enthusiasts. Since he had the inventory and the vendor relationships already established, it was a natural transition into a mail order business. An online version of the catalog was launched in 1979. In 2000, PBMA-FL.net became Autogeek.net. Bob implemented the invaluable experience that he learned while operating on the boardwalk to provide customers with the same insight and care they receive in a store, via the Internet.

In 2006, Bob started Autogeek.net, his own car detailing forum. It was a new way to answer customers' questions about their products and facilitate conversations betwen people who share a common hobby.

Bob's Autogeek.net's facility has a total space of 20,000 sq. ft., with over 40 employees and a fully equipped garage, studio and classroom. Autogeek.net's Show Car Garage how-to segments and commercials air on SPEED channel. In addition, the distribution side of PBMA continues to flourish with new distributors being added all over the world.

Last year, Bob was pleased to develop a relationship with the co-hosts of Truck Y, Matt Steel & Bruno Massel, and bring them into the PBMA family as spokesmen for Autogeek.net. Recently, Autogeek.net's 6th Annual Detail Fest was the largest to date. He had over 3000 people in attendance as well as 40 manufacturers displaying their products all in his midway tent. It was a two day event, complete with a car show, truck show, live entertainment, a beer garden and food concessions. The How-To detailing classes were filled to capacity and streamed live on the Internet. Best yet, over $5,000 was raised for the PBMA charities. The event this year was filmed by Fox Sports Network (FSN) to be aired in the summer of 2011. Autogeek.net is in it's 2nd year of sponsoring SPEED channel's Two Guys Garage along with the race car for Massel Racing. Lastly, our tireless classmate has had the pleasure of being the Executive Producer for his own show, Autogeek's What's in the Garage? hosted by Mike Phillips, which aired earlier this month.

If you ask friend and former classmate, Doug Hart, he would tell you that Bob is the consummate worker and salesman. "He started by putting in long hours at the Seaside boardwalk and continues that same work ethic aiming at excellence to this very day. Another friend of Bob since the seventh grade, Jack Taylor, remembers when Bob fell in love at the end of their senior year. "It might have even happened on senior hooky day. Bob's first love was not a girl but the action of the boardwalk at Seaside Heights. When school ended in June 1970 Bob moved to Seaside to work his passion if that's what we can call it. To Bob, working 60 -80 hours a week was not hard work, it was fulfilling a burning desire. His mission there was to find out everything he could on how the business worked. His mentor, Lucky Leo, took him in and showed Bob how to run a good stand and what to look for in a location when he was ready to go on his own. When Bob got his own stands, he had a great feel for things there, he always seemed to be on the leading edge anticipating what was to be the hot item every year. A trip to Seaside in those days was not complete unless we could get together for a few hours and hang out."

In addition to a rewarding career, Bob is very proud of his family, especially his two daughters, Kristin and Kelli. When he's not working, Bob enjoys getting out on the water on his boat. "I'm fortunate to live on a canal (what they call a lagoon in Florida) and like to go to a waterfront restaurant or over to the Bahamas every chance I get. When my girls were growing up, we spent family vacations in the Florida Keys. I still take the boat down to the Keys whenever I can to enjoy the simple peaceful lifestyle."

Bob took his love of the Atlantic surf and sand south and continued his success. Little did we realize in high school that his passion for business and automobiles would someday translate into a mega company providing rewarding employment for so many. Bob...we applaud you...nice going!