Gosnell, Robert E., 1908-1994.

Robert E. Gosnell was born August 4, 1908 in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. In 1919 his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Gosnell attended the Monroe Elementary School and Phoenix Union High School. He was a classmate of Barry Goldwater, Jack Williams and other influential Arizonans. Throughout the 1920s, he held a wide range of jobs including construction worker for the Montgomery Stadium and the Horse Mesa and Coolidge Dams. He joined the Phoenix National Bank in 1928. In 1930, he met and married Dorothy Lee Ketchie. In 1938, the bank performed an audit and discovered that Gosnell had built candy machines and penny scales all over town. Gosnell was then ordered by the bank president to drop his outside interests. Six months later, Gosnell left the bank and began construction on the Green Gables Restaurant. Using his previous labor experience, Gosnell personally worked on the construction of the Green Gables Restaurant. For the restaurant's grand opening in 1940, Gosnell chartered and flew a Stinson airplane over Phoenix to gain publicity. That trip also marked the first radio broadcast by airplane in the state of Arizona. During the broadcast, Gosnell played jazz piano during the airplane's flight while Howard Pyle, who would later become Governor of Arizona, provided commercials from the KTAR studios. In 1949, Gosnell expanded the Green Gables Restaurant by bringing in rocks from northern Arizona to simulate a castle, part of the owner's recurrent reference to Robin Hood. Green Gables became a great success and a popular landmark. When the restaurant was bought out by Cabot, Cabot, and Forbes, they turned the lot into an office park but kept the restaurant's architecture in place. Over the years Gosnell branched into other areas of business. He opened Sherwood Investment Company and Gosnell Builders which oversaw the construction of the Pointe Hilton Resort. Gosnell also acquired land for KOY Radio, KXIV Radio, and the Southern Broadcasting Company. Gosnell was active in local Phoenix charitable organizations such as the Jaycees and the Phoenix Thunderbirds. He served as director of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and on the Board of the Phoenix Country Club, the Arizona Club, the Kiva Club, the 20-30 Club, the Exchange Club and the Y.M.C.A. Gosnell also helped organize Phoenix Union High School Class Reunions. He was an avid musician and composed themes for the Pointe Hilton, Green Gables, and the Phoenix Union High School Class Reunions.