(Courtesy Toll Brothers)
By Symone Strong | Builder
Toll Brothers announced the passing of Robert I. Toll, the company’s co-founder, former chairman, and CEO. He passed peacefully surrounded by his family following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 81.
“We are heartbroken by the passing of our founder, mentor, and dear friend,” says Douglas C. Yearley Jr., chairman and CEO of Toll Brothers. “Bob was a brilliant strategist and an incredible teacher and adviser. His lessons have been indelibly etched over the past half century in the minds of the entire Toll Brothers team and many of the industry’s current and future leaders.”
Toll was born in 1940 and raised in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. After graduating from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Toll practiced law for one year before founding Toll Brothers with his younger brother Bruce in 1967.
“One of the happiest days of my life was when Bob quit the practice of law and we joined together to start Toll Brothers, building what has become such a great company,” says Bruce. “While deeply saddened by his passing, I am forever grateful for our lives together as brothers and business partners.”
The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1986, ultimately becoming a Fortune 500 company with $9 billion in annual home building revenues and a presence that now spans over 60 markets in 24 states.
