Robert Bain "RB" Jenkins, Jr. Obituary

Gastonia, North Carolina

Robert Bain Jenkins, Jr. (RB) passed away May 7, 2025, peacefully and surrounded by his family. RB led an abundant life as a dedicated husband, father, businessman, devoted friend and civic leader.

Born in 1942 in Gastonia, NC, he was the son of Robert Bain Jenkins, Sr. and Sybil Shuford Propst Jenkins. He attended Gaston County schools and graduated from Ashley High School where he was quarterback on the football team, and ran track. He was renown for running a 98 yard touchdown on a broken leg to beat Garringer High School in the state championship playoffs.

Upon graduation RB went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he played quarterback on the freshman football team and was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was also on the UNC Club Fencing team and a lifelong Tarheel.

He later received an Associate of Science degree in Engineering, Mechanical & Production Technology from Gaston College. RB went to work in the family metal fabrication business in Gastonia where he would become President & CEO, and lead Jenkins Metal Corporation for the next 40 years. He met Carol Norman, a nurse from Shelby, NC and they married in 1963 and raised two daughters in Gastonia.

RB took their textile machinery business global and held numerous patents for textile machine parts and systems, as well as for hunting and fishing gear. Also an avid outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman, RB created and launched several successful sporting goods companies including Hunting Classics and Benchmark Knives, the latter a critically acclaimed custom knife company that won national knife design awards from the American Firearms Association. Benchmark Knives was acquired by Gerber Knives in 1986.

A member of the American Yarn Spinners Association, the American Textile Association, The American Firearms Association, and The North Carolina Textile Association where he served on the Board of Directors; RB was a strong supporter of all things American made.

He was also an advocate for local organizations and served his community as Past President of the American Heart Association. He served two terms as President of the Gaston County YMCA, and four terms as President of the Board of the Schiele Museum. He also held board positions with BB & T Bank.

RB was a Past Master Mason with Holland Memorial Lodge and a member of the Shriners International where he served as past Ambassador of the Oasis Temple. He was a former member of the Gastonia Chamber of Commerce and the Gastonia Rotary Club. He was named Alumni of the year from Gaston College.

RB was always happiest outdoors and spent many years hunting and fishing all over the world. He was a member of Ducks Unlimited, The National Wild Turkey Federation, The National Rifle Association and various other hunt clubs and regularly took hunting and fishing trips to the American west and Canada. RB was a guest turkey hunting guide for Ted Turner’s Vermejo Ranch in New Mexico where he led turkey hunts across thousands of acres of the Turner Reserves.

Also an amateur archeologists and avid collector of Indian artifacts, RB held a vast collection of American Indian pottery and arrowheads. Much of that collection has been donated to the Schiele Museum in Gastonia. RB loved horseback riding and had a western horse for many years along with an impressive collection of cowboy boots. His daughters had ponies and horses and he was often seen at their barn building new stalls and making improvements.

He grew up spending the summers at his family’s lake house on Lake Wylie, SC, where he enjoyed fishing, water skiing and arrowhead hunting along the banks of the river once inhabited by the Catawba Indians.

Always an avid athlete, RB was a regular on the YMCA racquetball courts and played in numerous NC Senior Racquetball championships in the 1980’s and 90’s. But over time he gravitated more and more to golf, a game he loved and played almost daily well into his 80’s. He was a lifetime member of 62 years at Gaston Country Club, where he formerly served on the Board of Directors. He had a hole in one in 2010 on number 14 at GCC and played in more golf tournaments that he could count.

But above his enthusiasm for sports and the great outdoors, RB was a faithful Christian, and lifelong member of the First United Methodist Church of Gastonia where he served in many ways throughout his lifetime.

His strong support of philanthropy was evident in his service to all things dear to him in Gaston County from coaching little league football, to serving as Chief of Y Indian Princesses, to working in his later years as a volunteer with the Mended Hearts organization.

RB was a son, brother, husband, father and grandfather and was ever grateful for his family which he put first above all else. He was a Boy Scout, an athlete, an entrepreneur, a business owner, a collector, hunter & fisherman.

His gregarious personality made him beloved by many and he had a great affinity for telling jokes. RB was also an accomplished shag dancer and loved nothing more than a band party with Carolina Beach Music. He could find the humor in even the most serious situations and brought positive energy to everything he approached. His kind and gentle personality was always full of compassion, enthusiasm, and zest for life.

RB is survived by his wife of (62) years Carol Norman Jenkins, daughters and sons-in-law, Leigh Ann Jenkins Goodwyn and William Fountain Goodwyn of Charlotte, NC, and Palm Beach, FL, Cynthia Carol Jenkins Isom and Maron Eugene Isom of Columbia, SC, and four grandchildren, Carson Leigh Goodwyn, Gray Fountain Goodwyn, Evan Franklin Ekman, Jr., and Clara Leigh Ekman and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Bain Jenkins Sr. and Sybil Shuford Propst Jenkins, and sisters Ann Jenkins Riggs and Delores Jenkins Thornton.

A service to celebrate RB’s life will be held at 3:00pm, Thursday, May 15, 2025 at First United Methodist Church in Gastonia, NC, with the Reverend Justin Lowe and Becky Greene officiating. The family will welcome friends at a special reception at Gaston Country Club immediately following the service.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to First United Methodist Church of Gastonia Building Fund, 190 Franklin Blvd, Gastonia, NC, 28052 or to Mended Hearts of Gastonia, 2525 Court Dr., Gastonia, NC 28054.

The family would like to express a special thanks to the staff at CaroMont Health for the excellent care that was given to RB.

McLean Funeral Directors of Gastonia is honored to serve the family.

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