Robert L. Hinkle

1938 - 2020

(News story) Robert L. Hinkle, honored as an entrepreneur more than two decades after leaving a Fortune 500 firm to take a risk and start his own packaging company, died Thursday in his Sylvania Township home. He was 82.

He had health problems and learned two weeks ago that he had cancer, said his son Tab Hinkle.

Mr. Hinkle was former president and chairman of Hinkle Manufacturing, founded in the early 1960s, which became known for the specialty, though often reusable, packaging created for auto-related industries.

"My father believed it was people's creativity and not limiting that creativity - you used whatever you could get your hands on - to solve a customer's problem," said his son, who became president. That problem, for instance, might be designing and making a container to be used over and over to transport a specific type of auto part for a model's life cycle.

Mr. Hinkle - "pretty much everyone called him Hink," his son said - was named 1989 Northwest Ohio Entrepreneur of the Year in the manufacturing division. He told The Blade then that he would rather hire a talented person and create a position for that employee than try to find a worker to fill a set need. That ensured his basic tenet was followed: "People can have fun doing what they do," he said in 1989.

He was awarded a Small Business Civic Award in 1977.

Mr. Hinkle left studies at Ohio State University to take a job at Owens-Illinois Inc., maker of glass bottles, but also corrugated boxes and other packaging. He saw the need for specialized packaging. With a $1,200 invest- ment - which he borrowed - he started his company.

"I didn't like the office politics in a big corporation," Mr. Hinkle said in 1989. The Hinkle organization came to include more than 17 largely autonomous companies.

"He took the most pride in the fact that it became bigger than he ever thought it could, because of what he started and the attitude he took," his son said. "He had a drive that was unlike anybody else."

Hinkle Manufacturing Inc. was sold in 2018 and closed not long after by its owner. Mr. Hinkle continued to be an owner of CoolSeal USA and several other companies not part of the sale.

After he retired about 15 years ago, he founded Stonebridge Investment Partners, which focused on companies with growth potential.

Mr. Hinkle was a 50-year member of Inverness Club and a longtime golfer. He was a volunteer leader when major golf events came to Toledo, including the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open. He was a co-chairman of the 75th PGA championship, which was played at Inverness in August, 1993.

Having such an event in town meant more than money and crowds, Mr. Hinkle told The Editors television program in 1993.

"It brings a unification to a community," Mr. Hinkle said in 1993. "I just can't express to you the satisfaction and the energies we feel right now flowing out of our community. Yes the economic impact means a lot, but we are realizing an effervescence in this community."

He'd been active in the Young Presidents Organizations and served on the boards of AAA of Northwest Ohio, the University of Toledo Foundation; the former Society Bank and Trust, and Toledo Mold and Die.

He also took a lead more than 40 years ago in saving Tam-O-Shanter in Sylvania after the ice arena encountered money problems, said John Crandall, now a Sylvania Township trustee.

"He was decisive," Mr. Crandall said. "And he certainly had a vision. His goal was to have the finest rink in northwest Ohio."

He was born June 12, 1938, in Detroit to Erma and Horace Hinkle. He grew up in Ottawa Hills and was a graduate of Ottawa Hills High School.

Surviving are his wife, the former Margaret Monasmith, whom he married May 7, 1966; sons, Tab, Scott, and Tyler Hinkle, and three grandchildren.

Funeral services will be private. A celebration of his life will be held from 5-9 p.m. Aug. 7 at Inverness Club. Arrangements are by the Walker Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.; Toledo Area Humane Society in Maumee, or the Evans Scholar Foundation in Glenview, Ill.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.