Robert E. O’Brien, who with his late brother Donald expanded a small-family business into lawn mowers and, in time, equipment to groom golf courses and athletic fields, died Sunday in his Sylvania Township home. He was 89.

He developed complications after a fall several weeks ago in his home, his son, Martin, said.

Mr. O’Brien in 1995 was named board chairman of Century Equipment of Toledo, and his son was promoted to president. The firm has offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus.

“He did a great job in mentoring and was gracious in turning over the reins,” said his son. “He was a very honest guy. If you wanted to ask a person about the right way to do things, he was the guy.”

Early on, Century became a wholesale distributor of Toro equipment to dealers, his son said. Toro through the decades recognized Mr. O’Brien and Century for business performance and sales, including as its largest distributor.

“Bob had a real knack for taking care of his people and taking care of the customer,” said Tim Janney, general manager of Janney’s Service Center, whose late father, Arnold “Joe” Janney, first dealt with Mr. O’Brien and Century more than 60 years ago.

After World War II, the O’Brien brothers, veterans both, concluded they’d need more to support them than Century Press, the small publishing business their late father, Patrick, ran from their West Toledo home. They saw the future in returning veterans starting families and buying homes with lawns. The brothers sold power mowers door to door before opening shop.

In 1972, his brother died.

“The real challenge he had to face was the sudden loss of his brother,” Martin O’Brien said. “He had to take full responsibilities in a brief period of time.”

Golf courses and places with expanses of green became customers as Century specialized in high-performance and precision mowing and irrigation.

Mr. O’Brien was a co-founder in the 1960s of the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation. In 2010, Mr. O’Brien received the Toledo District Golf Association’s Mel Harbaugh Humanitarian Award.

He was born June 18, 1926, to Marcella and Patrick O’Brien. He was a 1944 graduate of Central Catholic High School, enlisted in the Navy, and served stateside. He went to the University of Toledo on the GI Bill and received a bachelor of business administration degree.

He was a former director and endowment board member at St. Francis de Sales High School. He was a former trustee of what is now Lourdes University, from which he had an honorary doctorate, and was on the boards of Flower Hospital and ProMedica.

He’d been a parishioner of Christ the King Church and St. Joseph Church, Sylvania.

He and his wife, Livia, married in 1950. She died in 1986.

Surviving are his wife, the former Penny Gallagher, whom he married in 1988; son, Martin; daughters, Kathleen McAllister, Marilyn Montgomery, and Carol Martens; stepdaughter, Megan Gallup; stepsons, Michael and Marty Gallagher, and 16 grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2-8 p.m. today in the Walker Funeral Home, Sylvania Township, with a recitation of the Rosary at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday in Christ the King Church.

The family suggests tributes to St. Francis de Sales High School; Lourdes University, Sylvania, or the Ohio Turfgrass Research Trust, Columbus.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.

First Published November 4, 2015, 5:00 a.m.