Barnetts Motor Group founder Bob Barnett, aged 82

Robert “Bob” Barnett, well-known Dundee businessman and former chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce, has died aged 82.

Mr Barnett ran Barnetts Motor Group with 11 dealerships in the city and was described as a “Dundonian through and through.”

He was born on January 22 1936 and educated at Morgan Academy before completing his national service in Egypt and Cyprus.

His business career started in his father’s Dundee Express removals business.

A two-week induction into the business in London moving furniture convinced him his destiny did not lie in that direction and he joined the company truck and car business, Taybridge Garage, in Roseangle.

With the death of his father, he took over running the company and steadily expanded the business into what became Barnetts Motor Group with 11 dealerships.

He was said to be an innovative leader, visiting the US on many occasions to pick up ideas on how to run a better business.

He served for periods as chairman of Dundee Tayside Chamber of Commerce, president of the Scottish Motor Trade Association and was elected a fellow of the Institute of the Motor Industry, chairman of Whitehall Theatre Ltd and president of Claverhouse Rotary.

He owned a number of yachts in his lifetime and was a member of the Royal Tay Yacht Club.

He competed five times in the Royal Ocean Racing Club Fastnet, including the 1979 event in which 15 people died when a storm swept through the race.

For 10 years, he and fellow sailor friends spent one month a year sailing and exploring the Caribbean.

He was a keen golfer and an active skier and a keen motorcyclist.

He had an enduring fondness for Cyprus, and during his retirement he lived there for 15 years before illness brought him home three years ago. He died on Monday. A family man, he was married to Alison for more than 50 years.

They had two children, Paul and Tracy, and six grandchildren.

Robert ‘Bob’ Barnett.