Bob Audette, 85, a longtime booster of Route 66 in New Mexico who was born about the same time the Mother Road was federally certified in 1926, died on March 19, according to an obituary at Riverside Funeral Home in Albuquerque.
According to the funeral home, cremation will take place, and no services are planned.
In 2006, Audette received the Lifetime Achievement Award as a previously “unsung hero” for Route 66 advocacy at the annual Will Rogers Awards Evening. According to a report at the time:
His contribution to New Mexico’s Route 66 and its preservation, especially the Route 66 Neon Project, has made New Mexico one of the premier Route 66 states.
A few years ago, he designed the “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” New Mexico license plate.
Here’s a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story from 2006 about him:
Audette lives on Route 66 in the ghost town of Barton, 22 miles east of Albuquerque.
Today he’s fighting to keep the old road from losing its identity.
“Yeah, it’s even renamed State Highway 333, which is a shame,” Audette said.
Audette is part of the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce, a national group based in New Mexico that’s working to “be the thread that ties all of the pockets of Route 66 activity together from Chicago to L.A.,” said Jerry Ueckert of Edgewood, another member of the group.
As soon as the highway was decommissioned, Ueckert said, “Bob was out there thumping the restoration bible before most people knew it was even gone.” […]
Route 66 connects people to the land, Audette said. The new highways don’t give you that feeling.
“I’ve got a poem, if I could remember it, it goes something like this:
“‘Route 66 is like being part of the countryside and it should always be forever saved and signed for you and all to see.’
“I’m not a poet, but I just happened to write that one.”
And here’s a series of videos where Audette is interviewed.