Ross resident and business owner Bobby Colosimo was a “workaholic,” says his wife, Robin.
But he didn’t work just for himself. He started a landscape supply business, The Barn, for his son, David, and founded a real estate company, BMDS, for the benefit of his four granddaughters.
“Everything that Bobby did was for them — and me also,” Robin Colosimo said. “It will give the kids and David security for the future. It’s what he worried about all the time.”
Bobby Colosimo also was there for the Ross community, whether residents knew it or not. Beyond employing people, behind the scenes he freely gave of his time, materials and money to various causes in the township, former Commissioner Joe Laslavic said.
“He was always a phone call away,” Laslavic said. “The guy never said no to anyone, and he didn’t want anything in return.”
Colosimo, who was 78 when he died in October 2024, was recognized as the Durachko-Gottfried Ross Township Citizen of the Year for 2025.
Robin, David and longtime friend Ronald Burkard accepted the award from Laslavic at the Ross commissioners meeting in December. Colosimo is the seventh recipient of the award, first given in 2019 to Dr. Peg Durachko and her husband, Dr. Richard Gottfried, for whom it is named.
Gottfried was killed in the Tree of Life mass shooting in October 2018 in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The couple had run their own dental practice in Ross since 1984.
Laslavic, who played a part in creating the award, said it was conceived shortly before the Tree of Life incident.
“I wanted to highlight the unsung heroes of our community,” he said. “The ones behind the scenes who make our community such a great place to live.”
The award is given annually in December to a Ross resident or group of people who have made a meaningful and significant impact on the community.
Colosimo is the first since Gottfried to be honored posthumously. The nine township commissioners chose him from a half-dozen candidates, said Laslavic, who left his office representing Ross’ Fourth Ward at the end of the year.
“Any time we needed anything, we went to Bobby and he was always there,” Laslavic said. “ ‘Whatever you need, just give me a call’ — that’s like a lost art form. He chose to give back. That’s what this award is all about.”
Robin, 75, said Colosimo was her first boyfriend, and they dated for about a year before he went away to college and their paths separated. They ran into each other at a Pittsburgh nightclub, started dating again and got married in 2000.
While everybody called him Bobby, Colosimo also long had the nickname “Rosie.”
“His mother’s name was Rose. Bobby was very, very close to his mother,” Robin said. “I think all his buddies would tease him and call him ‘Rosie.’ ”
A native of Pittsburgh’s North Side, Colosimo had owned parking lots there that he sold to Alco Parking. In addition to The Barn Landscape Supply, he also started Daroco Trucking.
Robin retired in 2005 after 40 years in advertising for the Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette.
“He was quite the entrepreneur. He loved to work. He was very creative, and he had a great business mind,” Robin said. “He didn’t learn it in school. He learned it on the streets. He was very street smart.”
Colosimo was diabetic, and it took a toll on his health, Robin said. He continued working through illness until dying from pneumonia.
“Even when he was in the hospital, he was still conducting business constantly,” she said. “He just couldn’t not work. He was that kind of guy. He worked constantly. It paid off for him.”
David Colosimo built a memorial to his father — a truck made of stone — on The Barn Landscape Supply property off southbound McKnight Road just past Babcock Boulevard.
Colosimo didn’t have much in the way of hobbies.
“His hobby was having a good dinner and a drink somewhere, a nice restaurant,” Robin said. “And playing with his grandkids. They were his world.”
Robin said she didn’t know the township was honoring her husband with the Citizen of the Year Award until she was asked to come to a commissioners meeting.
“I couldn’t be more proud of him. He deserved it. He was just one of a kind, I’ll tell you. One of a kind,” she said. “He deserved everything. I might be partial, but I think he did.”