Former National Stone Association president dies

Robert Bartlett, a former Pennsylvania highway secretary and engineer who served the National Stone Association (NSA) as president, has died. He was 84.

Bartlett was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and had a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and an MBA from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. Bartlett was president of the National Stone Association (NSA) from the spring of 1986 until his retirement in 1996. NSA formed in January 1985.

“When I started there, he brought the association into a fiscally responsible position,” says Tina Richards, a former association colleague. “He took the helm after the merger of two organizations. One was a little bit more profitable than the other. He managed to grow their investment reserves.”

In addition to serving at the National Stone Association, Bartlett is past-president of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, and he served as an executive vice president for L.B. Smith Inc., Camp Hill, Pa., in charge of the construction equipment and manufacturing divisions.

During his tenure with NSA, the association doubled in membership size and the Aggregates Foundation was created with a $5 million endowment for the Center for Aggregates Research, according to the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA). According to NSSGA, Bartlett frequently met with producers and NSA members around the country. He was one of the key players in merging NSA and the National Aggregates Association into NSSGA, adds the association.

“Our industry has lost a truly great leader,” says Mike Johnson, NSSGA president and CEO. “Few people were as passionate about our industry as Bob. He sought to bring together two separate aggregates associations into one entity that represented the best of our industry and provided a clear voice on Capitol Hill for producers and the companies that serve them.”