John Robert Rankin

He was born the 13th of April, 1942 in Battle Creek, Michigan to the late John Watkins Rankin and Helen Roberta Casey Rankin. Robert graduated from Wauwatosa High School in Wisconsin. In his early years, he lived in Wilmington, NC, Milwaukee, WI and finally moving to Charlotte, NC in 1962. He enjoyed hunting and fishing with his father and learned early in life about business and gained strong work ethics by raising chickens.

A graduate of Guilford College in North Carolina with a BA Degree. He spent nine influential months in Vienna, Austria attending the University of Vienna and traveling Europe. Robert later earned his J.D. Degree at Cumberland School of Law, Samford University in Birmingham, AL in 1969.

Robert practiced law in Charlotte being associated with the Sanders, Walker and London law firm. He then served as an Assistant District Attorney in Mecklenburg County. Later he established his private Law Practice and served as counsel for the Rowe Corporation in Charlotte. He was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Hilton Head, Sons of the American Revolution, North Carolina Bar Association and Supreme Court of United States.

He enjoyed hunting, fishing, golf, boating and most of all traveling. Robert and his wife, Lynda, acquired their US Coast Guard Licenses. They commissioned a 43 foot sailboat in 1988 from Shannon Boat Company. Named “ADRILYN”, Robert and Lynda sailed from Maine to Venezuela visiting islands in the Caribbean over a period of five years.

The couple took a 100 day world cruise on Crystal Cruise Line in 1998. In 2013 they took a 75 day cruise around South America.

Robert and Lynda built their home on the shores of Lake Norman, Denver, NC where they raised their family from 1975 – 2004, then retiring in Bluffton, SC, where they established a home in the golfing community of Colleton River Club from 2004 – 2024, and also a home in Elk River Club in Banner Elk, NC.

Predeceased by his brother, Samuel Martin Rankin in 2010.

Robert is survived by his beloved wife of 61 years, Lynda Marie Rowe Rankin; two children: Rob Watson Rankin and daughter, Adrianne Alexandra Rankin; two grandchildren: Warren William Sanders and Phoebe Rankin Sanders; his sister, Juliann Rankin Shaw and husband, Gary Shaw and their son, Chris Shaw.