Robert J. Mallendick Jr.

1943 - 2023

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Robert J. Mallendick, Jr., who led a Toledo-based petroleum distributor after a stellar college football career and his selection as a pro team's draft pick, died June 19 in ProMedica Toledo Hospital. He was 79.

Mr. Mallendick of South Toledo had been in declining health since November, his son Rob Mallendick said. He had not been involved for several years in Seaway Fuels Trucking, the company his wife, Carol, founded in the early 1990s after his own Empire Petroleum went out of business.

"He was still consulting. He was always there with advice," said his son, who is Seaway president. "It meant a lot to him, to see your children succeed."

Formerly of Ottawa Hills, Mr. Mallendick's business career followed his graduation from Hillsdale College and his brief stint with the New York Jets. He'd been drafted while still a Hillsdale junior in 1965 - the same year Joe Namath went to the Jets as the No. 1 pick in what was then the American Football League. Mr. Mallendick made it to the final cuts in the Jets' summer, 1966, camp.

Back home, he went to work for Empire, owned and run by his aunt, Esther Mallendick, who'd helped rear him.

"He drove trucks and worked at the gas station and had to work his way up," Mr. Mallendick said.

His aunt joined Empire in 1921 and for a time was believed to be the only woman oil jobber in Ohio. She bought the firm in 1944. When she died in 1972 at age 75 while on a Caribbean cruise, she still was in charge of the business, which by then supplied fuel to homes, industries and commercial outlets, serviced more than a dozen gas stations in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, and owned five bulk fuel plants across the region.

"He hired good employees," Mr. Mallendick said. "He had a really strong work ethic and a strong drive to succeed."

Known for being witty and quiet, he conveyed to his sons - now partners in Seaway Fuels Trucking - the importance of trying to keep a sense of humor.

"He was the dad who was a friend of yours," son Marc Mallendick said, adding that in the corporate world, "he was more friends with everybody. He let me learn. He introduced me to all his contacts. Mom and him brought us up, respect people for who they are, not what they are. Don't judge people."

He was born June 23, 1943, to Edna and Robert Mallendick and grew up in South Toledo. He later lived in what became Oregon with Miss Mallendick and was a 1961 graduate of Clay High School, where he played football.

At Hillsdale, he was a four-year starter on the football team. He was the team's offensive lineman of the year three times and twice was named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' all-state team.

He was a 2022 inductee to the Hillsdale College Athletic Hall of Fame. In a video made in connection with the ceremony, Mr. Mallendick said that the college had more than 600 students, yet played teams from Michigan schools four to 40 times Hillsdale's size. He recalled that head coach Frank "Muddy" Waters took good care of his players.

"We never thought we were the underdog," he said in 2022. "He just thought we were good, and we knew what we were doing, because they can only put 11 guys out on the field like we did.

"You got all these guys coming at you, screaming and everything else. There was definitely a mental game," he said. "You had to think ahead and know what you were going to do and at the same time you want to anticipate what the defense is doing. I acquired a lot more self confidence."

He was proudest of being drafted by the Jets.

"To have somebody - a professional team - even at a small school think you were worthy of at least trying out for their team was probably my most worthy feeling up there, other than I got a good education."

Mr. Mallendick received a bachelor's degree in economics from Hillsdale in 1966. He attributed his athletic success to perseverance, adding that the experience "brought me out of a shell, so to speak. After graduating from Hillsdale, I became a leader, not a follower."

He remained a football fan.

"It didn't matter who was playing, he loved to watch the game," son Rob said. He also enjoyed playing golf and had been a member of Heather Downs Country Club, Brandywine Country Club, and Inverness Club.

He and the former Carol Caulkins married Dec. 5, 1970. She died June 26, 2012.

Surviving are his sons Robert Mallendick III, Matthew Mallendick, Marc Mallendick, and Tony Gassier, and eight grandchildren.

The family will receive friends from 2-8 p.m. Friday at the Walter Funeral Home. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Church, where he was a member.