Zoning Lawyer Helped Shape District and Montgomery

Working as an Agriculture Department lawyer in the early 1950s, he helped develop a plan that allowed the government to receive royalties from all Smokey Bear paraphernalia sold across the country.

He was appointed assistant county attorney for Montgomery County in 1954. Two years later, anticipating the county's transformation from a sleepy rural and semirural area into one of the nation's fastest growing and most prosperous suburban regions, he formed a law firm specializing in real estate development. In 1963, he joined with Joseph Blocher to establish Linowes and Blocher, a firm specializing in zoning and land use.

Representing some of the biggest developers in a county feverishly courting growth, Linowes gained a reputation as a shrewd lawyer who had the facts and the experts needed to get the best of his opponents, usually citizens groups trying to slow growth.

"He did a craftsmanlike job for his clients," Idamae Garrott, a former Montgomery County Council member and frequent Linowes foe, said in a 1978 Washington Post article. "But a great many citizens disagreed with what he said for his clients."

Linowes acknowledged that his efforts as a zoning lawyer weren't universally lauded. He saw himself as a persuasive advocate for balancing inexorable growth with quality of life. In The Post article, he pointed to innovative types of zoning he helped craft, including industrial parks and planned development, as a part of his legacy.

He opened an office in the District in 1975. It was an opportune time, Sparks said, for him to shift his considerable energies and enthusiasm to District challenges.

"Home rule government has just gone into effect, we were still recovering in the aftermath of the riots, and there was a need for people like Bob to come into town and help get things going again," Sparks said.

As president, Linowes urged the Greater Washington Board of Trade to become more actively involved in community problems and to venture into politics. During his tenure, the group set up committees in the District, Virginia and Maryland and made donations to various candidates. He helped set up the Greater Washington Research Center and the Greater Washington Community Foundation, and organized a coalition of area groups in support of a downtown convention center.

He was part-owner in the early 1980s of the Washington Federals football team, a member of the ill-fated U.S. Football League.

In 1987, then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer appointed Linowes to chair the Maryland Commission on State Taxes and Tax Structure. Made up of a blue-ribbon panel of residents, the commission undertook a three-year review of how Maryland raised and spent money. Linowes was described as an "evangelist" for the commission's proposals, which included $800 million in new taxes.

"Nobody wants to pay new taxes, . . . and that is a given," he told The Post in 1991. "But when people are asked are you willing to help support a better education system . . . the answer is yes. Ask the same question on transportation, the answer is clearly yes. . . . This is good and fair for Maryland."

He became board chairman of the Community Foundation of Greater Washington in 1991. The foundation, which distributes grants to organizations involved with the arts, education, culture and health, had assets of more than $18 million and made grants of almost $2.3 million when he assumed leadership, compared with assets of $300 million today and grants of more than $90 million annually.

Linowes also served as president of the Economic Club of Washington, the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. Washingtonian magazine named him Washingtonian of the Year in 1980, and the Baltimore Sun named him Marylander of the Year in 1990.

Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Ada H. Linowes of Chevy Chase; four children, Robinn Linowes Thomas of Sterling and Julie Linowes Firth, Lisa Linowes Yates and Michael Linowes, all of New York; and 10 grandchildren.