Bob (Ironpapa) Brunner

Board Secretary

Born in Queens, NYC, in 1954, in the wake of a major hurricane,

Robert spent his first 45 years on Long Island, moving to Nassau County with his parents in 1961.

He was first employed, at age eleven, as a paperboy delivering the L.I. Press in his home neighborhood. He continued working throughout his years in school as an after-hours custodian at a local private school, and later as a sole proprietor of a lawn service business.

Robert attained an Associate's Degree at Nassau Community College and transferred to SUNY Stony Brook, where he studied education, mathematics, and physics. He left school to marry and worked for a short time as a shipping and warehouse manager for a small greeting card company in Manhattan.

Robert then formed his own Landscape service corporation, which delivered service on Long Island’s North Shore through the 1980s and 90s. Two daughters came into his life during this time. He sold that business in the late 1990s and moved his family to Florida to join with his younger brother, who had built a similar business there and needed help to continue expanding.

Robert returned to New York in 2002 to finish his degree in education at SUNY New Paltz. Upon graduation, he began working in the Plattekill school district. He returned to Long Island in 2006 and joined a private tutoring firm, working with homebound students teaching high school math and science courses until 2017, when he retired.

In 2009, Robert, now known as Ironbob, joined the NYNJTC  as a volunteer on the project rerouting the Appalachian Trail on Bear Mountain. There he met Chris Ingui, volunteer coordinator for the NYNJTC, and Eddie Walsh, owner of Tahawus Trails. He learned the craft of dry-stack stone masonry under Eddie’s and Chris’ tutelage and fell in love with trail work. The following year he met and befriended Arturo Hidalgo on the same project.

In 2011, Chris, Artie, and Ironbob collaborated in the founding of the Jolly Rovers Trail Crew (JRTC). When the decision was made to incorporate as a non-profit organization, Ironbob served a term on the original Board of Directors. In that position, he co-authored the training materials that are used by instructors in the recruit training and workshops the JRTC continues to provide. He currently serves as the newly elected Secretary for the Board of Directors as well as a crew leader and project coordinator, and has recently become a grandpa for the first time.

“You can have my hammers when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers”