Robert M. Kelso

October 13, 1947 - February 6, 2013
Robert M. Kelso

Gifts & Memorial Donations



Robert M. Kelso of Leicester died February 6, 2013 after a brief illness. A native of Kearny, NJ, he was born October 13, 1947. His parents, the late Robert Dunlop and Agnes Balnave Kelso, were natives of Scotland.

He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and was stationed in Fort Stewart, GA. It was during this time that he discovered the Asheville area and settled here in 1968. After graduating from UNCA with a degree in Sociology, he formed Kelso Graphics. He later established Kelso Associates Ltd., Advertising and Design.

In 2010 he sold the company and retired. He continued to pursue his hobby as a building contractor and built many homes in the Western North Carolina area which are considered to be architectural masterpieces.

Mr. Kelso was a loving and committed husband to Marcia Mills-Kelso for 30 years. He is also survived by two brothers, Donald Drummond Kelso and his wife Diane of Deltona, FL and Craig Balnave Kelso of Seattle, WA. He will be missed tremendously by his family and many friends.

There will be a private gathering at a later date officiated by Rev. Ernest L. Mills, Jr. of the Unitarian Universalists of Transylvania County.

Memorials may be made in the name of Robert M. Kelso to the Goat Barn at the Carl Sandburg Home, 81 Carl Sandburg Lane, Flat Rock, NC 28731 or to the humane society of oneís choice.


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  • February 14, 2013
    Cilla Olson says:
    I have so many good memories of Bob! I can't begin to express the feelings I had upon learning of his death..sorrow and then flashbacks of good times! My thoughts and prayers are with you,Marcia!

  • February 15, 2013
    Community Foundation of Henderson County says:
    The Board and Staff of the Community Foundation of Henderson County wish to express deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Robert Kelso on the sad occasion of his recent passing.

  • February 15, 2013
    K8 Gower says:
    I considered Bob my mentor and good friend. He was the best boss I ever had. I already miss him tremendously.

  • February 15, 2013
    Marti Mohidin says:
    My heart/mind are with you Marcia and Nina plus the whole family. With Love, Marti

  • February 16, 2013
    Marilyn Ball says:
    Western North Carolina lost a quiet leader this month with the passing of Bob Kelso, founder of Kelso Advertising & Design, an iconic, Asheville-based ad agency serving this region for 30+ years. Keeping in character, his passing appeared with only a standard announcement in the obit section of the paper ññ to the point, objective, brief. The way he would have liked it. Kelso was never one to take the praiseÖ he rather preferred to stay in the background, encouraging others to have the recognition. Kelso loved the Western North Carolina mountains. He moved here in the late 60s as a homesteader. Returning from the Army, he chose Asheville as his home ññ a place he could be himself, do what he loved to do, and be of service to his community. He accomplished all of this right here in Western North Carolina. I first went to work for Kelso in 1991, a time in this regionís history where the state map of North Carolina literally ended in Asheville, while the western part appeared as a vast wilderness with few roads or towns. There was yet a room tax for hotels, so most rural counties had little or no money for exposure to the outside world. His love of this region and his gift for design attracted him to an emerging tourism industry, desperately in need of economic help to survive. Driven by a small group of visionaries and community leaders with little or no money to invest but recognizing the importance of collaboration to achieve a bigger goal, he was asked to assist in their marketing efforts to create WNC as a travel destination. Over the next 18 years, Kelso earned the respect of his peers. But what mattered most to him was the continued growth and success of his clients. Professional integrity, providing consistent results by partnering with his clients and understanding their needs, and developing cost-effective marketing solutions, regardless of budget, was the bedrock of his business model. His clients showed their appreciation for the personal attention they received and the quality of work they deserved by renewing contracts year after year. He had a few clients for 20 years, a statistic mostly unheard for an ad agency. Kelso understood the importance of creating partnerships by collaboration and cooperation and encouraged his clients to foster a model for working together versus competing with one another. In this spirit, the region slowly began to emerge as the travel destination it is today. Always open-minded, he was willing to try new ideas and listen, rather than dictate. Each year, Kelso provided a community-based non-profit organization pro bono marketing assistance. These organizations include the March of Dimes, the Buncombe County Medical Society, WCQS, WNCW, The Wilderness Society, WNC Jewish Federation and Mountain Area Hospice. His generosity lifted the community he loved. Amy Jones, formally with WNCW Public Radio remembers, ìI met Bob Kelso at his office not long after I started at WNCW in 1998. I wanted to give the stationís paper newsletter a lift and we were looking for someone to do the layout and handle the printing. I was twenty-something with little experience and even less of a budget ñ itís public radio after all. After checking in with the receptionist, Bob welcomed me into his conference room like I owned the New York Times. His cowboy smile and silver ponytail intrigued me at once but it was his kind eyes and gravelly laugh that put me at ease. He talked me through all the steps and when we came to the price he said he would do it at no cost, if we could cover the expense of the printing. All that time and creative energy expended by his staff every few weeks would just be an unheralded gift to a community of fellow music lovers that would never know his name, save for the small, curvy Kelso logo on the back of the publication. I gladly accepted. We were only friends through business but my memory of Bob Kelso remains tender. I can see his dark eyes shining over that snowy beard and I know his wheels were always turning. He told me once in casual conversation that the music he liked was rock, ëmostly the old stuff.í I imagine Bob somewhere wonderful now and hope that as some of the old rockers Pink Floyd propose, Bobís moved on to a ëGreat Gig in the Sky.íî Although Kelso wouldnít think of himself as a mentor, his gift to empower others is evident from those who worked directly with him at the office and in the industries he served. Each semester he brought in an intern from a regional college to learn in their direct field of study. They were expected to work hard and were given direction to oversee specific projects, mostly in the non-profit work we were doing. This meant the student left with a portfolio and the client had something they didnít have before, whether it was research, new logos or brochures. Randy Houston, a long-time on-air radio personality, did a lot of voice over work for Kelso over the years and remembers those times together fondly. Randy told me Kelso taught him the fork test. ìHe would write what he thought was a sixty second script and to confirm if it indeed was sixty seconds, he would lay a dinner fork beside the script in the margin. Kelso was a true treasure and I can hear his laugh now,î he said. Bob Kelso was a creative, innovative, experienced professional and his pro-active approach to bringing people together enabled this region to develop its economic foundation. He lived his life giving back to others and will be greatly missed.