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Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, 28 April 2002
Robert O. Bass, 84 President of Borg-Warner during 1970s
Robert O. Bass, 84, the former president and vice chairman of Borg-Warner Corp. in the 1970s, who led the corporation during its conglomerate heyday and also helped make it one of the first American manufacturers to supply parts to the Japanese auto industry in the 1960s, died of complications from several illnesses Thursday, April 25, in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
"He was certainly a product of his era," said Geraldine Fiedler, former vice president of human resources for what is now BorgWarner Inc. and the wife of current BorgWarner chairman and CEO John F. Fiedler. "He was a gentleman, always had a joke and was quick to poke fun at himself and events. But he was also a very sharp businessman."
Mr. Bass liked to say he got his start in business, at 17, because his one-time girlfriend's mother didn't like him. As the story went, she persuaded her husband to "hire that kid and get him off my back" because she loathed the idea of seeing him lurk around their house for another summer.
The girlfriend's father owned Eberhardt-Denver Co. Though Mr. Bass' relationship with the young woman never took off, he remained with the company for the rest of his career. It was bought by Borg-Warner's Morse Chain Division in 1956.
He later became president of the division, living in Ithaca, N.Y., then Chicago, while holding a number of executive posts until his election as a director of the corporation in 1973. He served as president of the corporation from 1975 to 1979.
He became corporate vice chairman in 1979, when Borg-Warner's interests ranged from air conditioning to chemicals and industrial parts. He retired in 1982 before an era of mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts pruned BorgWarner to its current form as a specialist in manufacturing automotive components.
Throughout his career, Mr. Bass prided himself on a thorough knowledge of materials production born of his early work on a factory floor.
"Bob used to say he still had chips on his shoes--meaning he was walking on the factory floor and picked up steel chips on his soles," said Ron Ruzic, an executive vice president at BorgWarner and group president of its Morse Tec subsidiary. "He started from the bottom up and really understood the process."
Along the way, he took night classes and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Denver in 1941. The same year he married the former Isabelle Cantrell, whom he had met in college.
When Mr. Bass retired, it was to a summer home he and his wife had long kept in Evergreen, Colo., where Mr. Bass filled his days with fly-fishing above 10,000 feet, his wife said.
But she added that they kept a home in Chicago, where Mr. Bass remained a life trustee of the Field Museum and chairman of the BorgWarner Foundation until 1992.
Besides his wife, Mr. Bass is survived by a daughter, Susan Noel; and two grandchildren. A private memorial service was planned.
The Denver Post, Colorado, Sunday, 28 April 2002
Robert O. Bass
Executive, fisherman R. Bass dies
Robert O. Bass, a Denver native, former executive at Chicago-based Borg-Warner Corp. and longtime member of the exclusive Wigwam Club on the South Platte River, died Thursday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He was 84.
Bass spent 48 years with Borg-Warner, which manufactures vehicle power-train applications, including four years as president of its Morse Chain division. He retired in 1982.
Bass was born in Denver on June 15, 1917.
He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Denver.
His real passion was fly-fishing. Bass and his wife, Isabelle, owned a summer house in the Evergreen area, where he kept a small smoker for the trout he caught on the Wigwam Club property. The Basses served the silky smoked fish at cocktail parties.
"His smoked fish was so good," his wife said. "I've never had smoked fish as good as his. I can buy some here in Chicago that they smoke up in Wisconsin, but it's so dry and hard."
Bass also was a generous contributor to the Colorado Nature Conservancy and to the Field Museum in Chicago, where he was a trustee. His vast collection of Navajo rugs, including at least one from each Navajo tribe, is being donated to the museum.
He is survived by his wife; a daughter, Susan Noel; a grandson, Mark Noel; and a granddaughter, Christina Noel Dewald. Services were private.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1917 - 2002 (84 years)