Longtime Goodwill CEO, prominent pastor dies at 82

Rev. Don Roberts and Bob Rosinsky spent a chunk of the early 1980s on the road in a camper — with the occasional flight when their destination was really far — visiting Goodwill stores across the U.S. and Canada. 

Rosinsky dubbed the trips, thousands of miles in total, the Magic Mystery Tour. The pair, both at the early stages of their Goodwill careers, sought to see what worked and what didn’t in the fragmented, nonprofit retail-for-jobs model. Sometimes they visited as many as 10 Goodwill stores a week. “We were looking for the characteristics that defined great Goodwills,” Rosinsky says. “We wanted to see where the innovation was coming from.” 

They used that knowledge, in addition to their own creativity and strategies, to build one of the largest and most recognized Goodwills in the 120-year-old global organization. That unit, Goodwill Manasota, had $95 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year, according to public tax filings. 

Roberts, who retired in 2012 after running Goodwill Manasota for 35 years, died May 15, surrounded by family in Sarasota. He was 82. 

Roberts was named executive director of the Manatee Division of Goodwill of the Suncoast in 1977, moving to town from Galveston, Texas. That group was the predecessor to what today is Goodwill Manasota; when Roberts took over, it served fewer than 400 people and had three locations. When he retired, it served some 4,500 people and had 45 locations spread through Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto and Hardee counties. Today Goodwill Manasota serves more than 7,000 people a year. 

To the customer, Goodwill is a retail store selling everything from frisbees to frappuccino machines and suits to sneakers. Yet using a “hand up, not out” theory, its core model isn’t to sell stuff, but to collect and then resell donated goods for the purpose of putting people to work who might otherwise be unemployed, including people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. Goodwill Manasota, for example, placed 1,563 people in jobs last year, according to its annual report. 

A key move Roberts made when Goodwill Manasota was in its early days was to follow the strategy of a bank, at least in the 1980s: have a main branch, and then support it with smaller sister branches all over town. That’s why there are so many Goodwills in Sarasota and Manatee counties today, some in former bank branches. (Roberts developed the strategy on the back of a napkin, he told the Business Observer in a 2012 interview, and his sidekick, Rosinsky, helped him execute it. Rosinsky was COO under Roberts and was named CEO after he retired.) 

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Other keys to Roberts' success at Goodwill Manasota included developing the Goodwill Good Neighbor Center, which, the organization says, made retail stores inviting and fun places to shop; changing the way Goodwill upskills its team members, focusing on job skills, training and education; and building connections with area employers so Goodwill could be effective at referrals and job placements.

The jobs piece was Roberts’ favorite part of his work at Goodwill. In the 2012 story on his retirement, he said the employees would be his lasting memory. “We have provided them a paycheck, human dignity and a sense of hope when no one else would give it to them,” Roberts said. “We have provided hope for the hopeless.”

Roberts was born in Port Arthur, Texas, one of six children. He married Peggy, after, according to his obituary, they “fell in love on Lido Beach.” The couple, the obituary states, “lived the happiest and most joyful life together; sharing a passion for caring about and standing up for others who were less fortunate, lovers of world peace and harmony, travel adventures, family and friends.”

In addition to Goodwill and his family life, Roberts had another side: a man with a large frame and larger-than-life presence, he was a sought-after speaker and pastor, both for invocations at Sarasota events and one-on-ones with people across the community. And he punctuated many conversations and speeches with a joke or three. “He was always funny and also always gave you something to think about,” says Rosinsky, his colleague and longtime friend. “When Don walked into a room, he filled it up.”     

That style was on display at a retirement luncheon held for Roberts Nov. 16, 2012, at Dolphin Aviation in Sarasota. More than 600 people, including dozens of local politicians and business leaders, attended the luncheon. “I had no concept of this 35 years ago,” Roberts said at the event of Goodwill Manasota’s early days. “All we really had was just a bunch of old underwear. Most of the place stunk. We moved a lot of stuff, but there was a marginal business operation.”

On the religious side, meanwhile, both his parents were active United Methodists. Roberts graduated from Lamar University in 1964 and did his seminary studies at Duke University. He served as a local pastor in North Carolina and then Texas for 10 years.

Rosinsky says Roberts was the best minister he’s ever seen, offering his ear, wisdom, wit — and positive spirit. “He’d be at the hospital in the morning, he’d be at the hospital at night. Don made time for everyone who needed him,” he says. “And he was very positive. We always talked about joy and gratitude. He would say you need to get up in the morning and be grateful for what you have.”