Robert Windsor Jr., former president of Hahn Transportation Inc., New Market, Md., died Aug. 16 following a short illness. He was 85.
Windsor was the father of American Trucking Associations chairman Barbara Windsor. He was born 1926 in Ijamsville, Md., and was a local farmer when he started driving trucks for Hahn, a petroleum and dry-bulk carrier serving the mid-Atlantic region.
He later began working full time at Hahn and handled safety matters for the company, which was founded by his father-in-law, James Russell Hahn.
Windsor succeeded Hahn as company president in 1972 and held that position for 30 years before retiring in 2002.
He owned the business with his wife of 64 years, Rebecca Hahn Windsor, who was the first female chairman of the Maryland Motor Truck Association. Their daughter Barbara was the second.
In 1994, the MMTA honored Robert and Rebecca Windsor as its “business people of the year.”
Barbara Windsor said her mother and father met in the first grade, when they attended school together — right across the street from Hahn Transportation.
She also said her father preferred to take a hands-on approach at the company, even after he started working in management.
“He loved being outside with the drivers,” she said. “He loved what was going on in the shop. He loved the customers.”
Barbara Windsor recalled a time when the company needed someone to haul an extra load to Cumberland, Md., on a Sunday morning, and her father volunteered to do it, “just for fun.”
“He asked me if I wanted to ride with him, and I did,” She said, noting that she was about 18 at the time.
They woke up at 2:30 a.m., loaded up the truck and headed to Cumberland, she said.
Robert Windsor had a special knack for communicating with his employees, said Bobby Weller, who has been a driver at Hahn since Windsor hired him in 1974.
“He’d talk to the drivers every day,” Weller said. “You weren’t a number; you were a name.”
Windsor was always quick to share his knowledge with the younger drivers, he said.
Weller added that he “enjoyed every minute” he spent with Robert and Rebecca Windsor.
“They were an unbeatable team,” he said.
Wayne Lease, Hahn’s fleet manager, said Windsor “won people over” with his leadership style.
“He’d never ask you to do something he wouldn’t do himself,” Lease said.
And many times he would do it himself. Lease said that even when Windsor was in his 60s, it wasn’t unusual to see him in coveralls, helping out with a job.
“No one in this world is going to replace him,” Lease said.
Windsor was a past board member for the National Tank Truck Carriers and also served on the advisory board for Rockwell International, whose automotive division later became truck components maker Meritor Inc.
In addition to his work in the trucking industry, Windsor was the second fire chief at the New Market Volunteer Fire Department and a past master at Philanthropic Lodge No. 168, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons.
Following his retirement, Windsor lived in Sun City Center, Fla.
He is survived by his wife, Rebecca Hahn Windsor; two daughters, Barbara Windsor of New Market, Md., and Rosemary Longenecker and her husband, Bob, of Clearwater Beach, Fla.; twin grandsons Jason Hahn Williams and Jeremy Windsor Williams; and sister-in-law Mary Catherine Moser of Sun City Center. He was predeceased by his sister, Florrie Strother.
