The Life of Bob Gold

Written by Melani Morose Edelstein,  Photo Credit: Philicia Endelman

Living a self-propelled life means you commit to a mission, engage in its meaning, and unleash the unstoppable force within. Lead with love, sincerity, and open honesty, and like longtime Palos Verdes resident Bob Gold, along the way, you attract like-minded collaborators and purposeful opportunities.

“I’m a glass half full guy,” explains Gold, the proud father of three grown sons and the founder of Bob Gold & Associates, one of the country’s premier, independent, integrated-communications public relations agencies. Located in Redondo Beach with an office in New York City, Bob Gold & Associates takes pride in being at the nexus in technology, media and telecom.

The process of taking video, delivering it to someone’s home, and making it a great user experience is where telecommunication meets entertainment and the space where Gold thrives. “This is a reinvention of how we communicate and get our entertainment,” he clarifies.

During his highly acclaimed 30-plus years in public relations and marketing, Gold has helped launch and rebrand dozens of companies. He’s created successful campaigns for start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, loves teaching his craft, is a proud children’s book author, has earned various industry honors and awards, and is responsible for helping raise millions of dollars for charities. His positive perspective propels him to keep striving. “You just do your job, and what you find in the process is sometimes you get a big voice, a voice bigger than what you know. I’m just Bob Gold, nobody fancy. But now, after all these years, when I say something, it has a gravitas behind it, and other people react. I was inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers Hall of Fame, along with Ted Turner and Brian Roberts, who owns Comcast. Along the way, you do your job, get recognition, and people think you are smart. But honestly, I’m just trying to stay relevant.” Gold says humbly.

It has been an exhilarating life for Gold, who began working as a professional actor at the age of seven when he sang and danced on Broadway in the original cast of Oliver! He was on the Ed Sullivan show where he danced with Juliet Prowse at eight, and appeared in television commercials, including a well-known Crackerjack ad that ran from 1963 to 68.

Life’s exciting adventures continued years later when he hired his future wife, Marcia at Lifetime. The two had become close friends at work, but Bob says he refused to date her at first. He recalls those early days with Marcia with a smile, “She said, ‘I love you’, and I said ‘well, I like you too’, and she said, ‘I want to take it to the next level’, but I told her it was unethical to go out because she worked for me. So she said “okay, then I quit.’” Although it was a slow process, Gold says that as he got to know Marcia, he realized what a fabulous and amazing woman she was. “I thought, why aren’t you giving this wonderful woman a chance? So I called her. Our first date was the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics.” By the third date, they were a couple, and within a month, they began living together. In 1986 the two married, and in 1988 they had the first of their three sons.

Marcia’s parents lived in Rolling Hills, and they encouraged the young couple to buy a house nearby. “So we moved to the hill. Marcia wasn’t sure at first, but Rolling Hills is spectacular. We didn’t have any friends on the Peninsula. We didn’t know anyone, but Marcia eventually connected to many people through the Women’s Club in Rolling Hills and also their temple, Congregation Ner Tamid, and as it happened, the parents of our children’s friends became some of our lifetime friends.

We were married for 33 years.” Sadly, after 38 years together, Marcia got advanced colon cancer and passed away in 2018. Those early days in Rolling Hills were glorious for the Gold family. “We moved here, and we fell in love with all of it. Marcia was a stay-at-home mom, and we felt like we were living in a resort. It’s so fabulous and I will always love it. I worked in Century City for so many years so coming home to this beautiful countryside and community was a dream for me. This is a ranch-style house; everything is on one level. I love this house so much, I thought I would be here forever and ultimately die here. It was never my plan to have Marcia pass first. They say that man makes plans, and God laughs.” Gold says.

The only thing I could do for her was to sit next to her and hold her hand. It was heartbreaking to lose my best friend and wife, Marcia,” he says. He’s very proud of the life and times he shared with Marcia raising their three boys who all went to PV High School. The couple even collaborated on a book together, The Shiny Penny, (a children’s book that captures a moment in their family history that exemplified love and teaching). Bob put the experience into words and Marcia illustrated the heartfelt story.

“I was with my wife for almost 38 years before she passed, and when it was time to date—I decided to open up my horizons and met a fabulous man. Nothing like coming out at 65! And you know what, most people have been very supportive.”

Coming Out and Moving Forward

During this very emotional time for his family, Bob began to give some serious thought to how he wanted to live his life moving forward. This personal reflection lent itself to an understanding and realization. “I thought, well, maybe this is the time to open up and date men.” Luckily it didn’t take long until he found an excellent partner. “I came out at 65 with John, and now I’m 67, I think I always had these feelings and tendencies. I know I did, but there was a lot of shame. The perception I had when I was growing up was that gay people were not equal to others. I greatly admire everyone who has come out regardless of when, to live a gay lifestyle. When I came out, the reaction was generally okay, or Bob, I had always wondered. You know, most people could care less.” Gold confides.

He is grateful his three sons embrace his partner, John Lee who is a local real estate agent. Bob almost died when he succumbed to COVID-19 before there was a vaccine. John explains, “Although I had it as well, I was asymptomatic, but Bob was very sick and not getting better. After about a week of Bob going from bad to worse, it was time to call 911.” Gold ended up spending 24 days in Torrance Memorial and 12 days intubated. He had a heart attack while on the ventilator which led to total renal failure. The doctors told his kids to prepare for the worst. But Gold wasn’t ready to go, and today he feels excellent.

Gold laughs when thinking about how fortunate he is. “Now, the hardest part of my life, the most challenging part, is finding out how to bring all my kids together again in one place because they have such busy lives,” says the proud dad. “I have a very full, vibrant life. I’m incredibly blessed.” But don’t call him tough. “People say, you went through such a tough time with your wife, and the years of her cancer, and then months and months of rehab from that hospital experience, and wow, it’s so tough. It’s nice to see you happy now. Well, it’s called life. It’s not tough. It’s you just deal with what life hands you, make the best, and go forward. You go forward in all things, no matter what happens. Because that’s why we’re here.

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