Robert Jean Thieblot, an attorney who championed Baltimore's architecture and neighborhoods as a member of the city's preservation commission, died of cancer Thursday at his Bolton Hill home. He was 76.
Born in Teaneck, N.J., and raised in Hagerstown, he attended Georgetown Preparatory School and Mercersburg Academy before earning a bachelor's degree at Princeton University. He was a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Mr. Thieblot read widely in classical studies, political history, architecture and natural philosophy, said his brother, Armand Jean Thieblot of Baltimore, and turned his love of learning into a sweeping historical novel published in 1997.
"He would count among his finest achievements his masterful portrayal of the Italian city-states and the papal succession in his monumental novel, Telemachus, the product of years of dedicated and careful research," his brother said.
Mr. Thieblot moved to Baltimore in 1961. He was a founding partner of the law firm Allen Thieblot and Hughes, later Thieblot and Ryan.
Mr. Thieblot walked to his World Trade Center office from his Bolton Hill home and often took different routes to observe Baltimore's buildings and vistas. He liked noting changes in the harbor from windows in his office.
"He was a great civil leader who didn't let his politics get in the way of achieving things," said a friend and neighbor, former state Sen. Julian L. Lapides. "Bob was politically one of the most conservative Republicans and was also a most gracious human being."
Mr. Thieblot served in various capacities as president or board member of the Boys Home Society, the H.L. Mencken House, The Kiwanis Club of Baltimore City, the Wednesday Club, the Baltimore Bar Library, the Merchants Club, the Mount Royal Improvement Association, and the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. He was a supporter of the Heritage Foundation and the Thomas Jefferson summer retreat, Poplar Forest.
As president of the Mount Royal Improvement Association, in Bolton Hill, he lambasted city officials when public fountains failed to flow, and he defended Baltimore's architecture and street trees.
In a 1963 letter to The Sun, he discussed how difficult it was to get a tree planted. "The procedure is so vexatious that one goes away with the distinct impression that wanting trees on the streets is considered a sort of private folly that ought not be encouraged."
