Zeleznik, Robert A.

A lifelong passion for lake boats, the Bob-Lo boats, photography

Bob Zeleznik was born on November 29, 1918, in City Point, VA, and was a long-time Grosse Pointe, MI, resident. He graduated from Grosse Pointe High School in 1937, Detroit Institute of Technology in 1938 and the Detroit College of Law in 1942. He was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in November 1942. He practiced law until 1959 with his father, Arnold Frank Zeleznik, and John C. Quillinan, in the Dime Building, downtown Detroit. He began a long, much-loved domestic relations law career at the Wayne County Friend of the Court on February 1, 1960, until his death on February 6, 1988.

His lifelong passion for lake boats began when his parents took him to Bob-Lo Island in 1922 to ride on their steamers COLUMBIA and STE. CLAIRE, and on a cruise to Chicago on the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co.’s WESTERN STATES in 1924 when he met Capt. John Hyatt. In 1929, his interest increased after having his picture taken with Capt. Hyatt on a Mackinac Island vacation. The next year, his photographic experience began after receiving a box camera as a gift from Kodak for attaining 12 years of age. There were many family trips to Bob-Lo and memories of swimming at the beach and renting rowboats for fishing at the island. When D&C began its Lake Huron Sunday cruises in 1938, Bob was on board with his box camera and seldom missed a Sunday ride. There were also many cruises on the passenger steamer PUT-IN-BAY. Over the years, Bob counted at least 30-50 trips per season to Bob-Lo Island from Memorial Day to Labor Day, rarely getting off on the island and thoroughly enjoying the ride downbound to Bob-Lo’s amusement park and then back upbound to Detroit, taking photographs of passing lake boats.

He met his wife, Wilma Kimmel, while she was working a summer job as an elevator operator in the Dime Building. To know Bob was to share his overwhelming enjoyment with boats, and Wilma wholeheartedly took part in this devotion until her death on March 30, 2010. They had a daughter, Virginia Octavia, born February 2, 1954, and named after Bob’s birthplace and Bob’s mother.

In the 1950s, Bob served as secretary of the International Tugboat Racing Association when that group presented tugboat races on the Detroit River. He inherited a love of trains from his father, who worked for the railroad before becoming a lawyer. The Zeleznik family traveled extensively by train whenever boat travel was not possible.

Bob was introduced to the Marine Historical Society of Detroit by marine photographer Capt. William J. Taylor. Bob immediately joined the society and remained an active member for the remainder of his life, serving as president for two years and secretary for 27 years, until 1979. He and his family made many trips on the D&C boats, ASSINIBOIA, KEEWATIN, SOUTH AMERICAN, NORTH AMERICAN and DELTA QUEEN, as well as trips to the Welland Canal twice a year before and after Bob-Lo’s season.

After Bob’s death, several archival boxes containing photos, nautical charts and papers were donated and are available for research at the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Artifacts, including a chart table off one of the D&C boats, were donated to the Detroit Historical Museum. In 2021, Virginia, and her husband, Carl McCoy, gifted Bob’s massive collection of negatives, slides, publications and other ship ephemera to Marine Historical Society of Detroit President Roger LeLievre, who has scanned the majority of the images for the MHSD’s archives.