Bob Ellis, 84, the first board chair of Ben Franklin Transit (BFT) in Richland, WA, died Dec. 10, 2009. He served 12 years on the transit agency’s board, six of them as its chair, and 16 years on the Richland City Council, beginning in 1977.

In 1992, Ellis received the APTA Local Distinguished Service Award. BFT also named its transit center at Knight Street in Richland, WA, in his honor.

Ellis was a CPA and an internal auditor who joined Douglas United Nuclear in Richland in 1965, retiring in 1987.

Ed Frost, retired transit development manager for BFT, said Ellis began talking about public transit in the local community in the 1970s when the concept was not at the forefront of many people’s minds. Ellis and Frost worked on a plan in the late 1970s and early 1980s to develop the transit system, which was formed May 19, 1981, after almost 74 percent of voters approved a 0.3 percent sales tax to support public transit. BFT began operating in 1982 with Ellis as its founding board chair.

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