Name: Robert Vaughn Droz

Named after 1) my father, Robert "Bob" Edwin - US Navy veteran of the USS Forrestal, he works for Florida DOT as a Final Estimates auditor. 2) my grandfather Perley Vaughn (deceased) - A mechanic and inspector for Curtiss-Wright and then for North American Aviation (became Rockwell)(now Boeing), past master of Bexley Lodge #704 F & AM, member of Bexley Star #524 OES and 3) my family name, Droz.

Residence / Contact Information:
I live in Mulberry, Florida. Other address and phone number information by request, or you can look it up, I bet it is on the web somewhere. If you just want to say "Hi" as you pass through town, that's cool. It's halfway between Orlando and Tampa. I am willing to talk to the media and authors of historically based / travel based novels and offer scans and copies of my maps for a modest fee.
I have also lived in Columbus, Ohio (1968-1978), Fort Myers, Florida (1978-1979), Bartow, Florida (1979-2002) and Lakeland, Florida (2002-2004)

Profession: Highway Designer
I worked for the Florida Department of Transportation from December 1986 to December 2002. From January 2003 to September 2006 I worked for Volkert & Associates in the Tampa office. Now I work for Keith and Schnars, P.A. in the Lakeland, Florida office. I work with AutoCAD, MicroStation and Geopak, and some CAiCE. It beats my previous job, which was the janitor at Harley Boat Company of Bartow, Florida. I've also washed dishes for Breton's Restaraunt of Bartow (closed), delivered papers for the Polk County Democrat of Bartow, and I've been a Camp Counselor at Florida Federation of Garden Club's Camp Wekiva near Apopka, Florida.

General Statistics:
Birth: May 25, 1968 at St. Ann's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; Sex: Male; Height: 5'10"; Weight: Yes; Hair: Wavy Lt. Brown; Eyes: Green; Martial Status: Single, still looking for the right girl; Registered Independent voter; Member AAA, RMCA (The Road Map Collector one, not Rat and Mouse Collectors); Dodge Dakota pickup driver

Education:
I started my schooling in 1973 at Maybury Elementary in Columbus, OH. When Liberty Elementary was built closer to my home in 1975, I switched to it. 1978 was a year of major changes. My left Ohio for Fort Myers, Florida, early in the school year. My new school for that year was Heights Elementary. In early 1979, my family moved agian, this time to Bartow, Florida, too late in the year to start yet again. In the fall, I started at Bartow Middle School, now Gause Academy, which was a sixth grade only school in those years. In 1980, it was off to Union Academy (also called Golfview Junioy High then, Union Academy Magnet now), at the time a seventh grade center. In 1981, it was over to Bartow Junior High School for 8th and 9th grade, the school, today is the new Bartow Middle, serving 6th thru 8th grades. The end of my Polk County Public Schooling was at Bartow Senior High School from 1983 to a 1986 graduation. BSHS is called Bartow High School today, and still has the name Summerlin Institute out front. From 1985 to the mid 1990's, I attended classes at Polk Community College.

Media:
My website has been reference by many newspapers, Maxim Magazine, and a few books. I appeared in Atlas Media's Modern Marvels - Overseas Highway program, which was broadcast in the United States on Cable TV's History Channel in 2003. I played myself. This got me mentioned in the imdb.

Family:
Bob & Ann (Sharron) - Parents; Curtis Emil - younger brother served in the Navy; Triston, Noah & Jacob - Nephews (Curt's boys with his ex-wife Angie); Crystal - Niece (Curt's daughter with his girlfriend Barbie); Morgan Jay - youngest brother - also served in the Navy (USS Nashville & Pensacola Naval Hospital) and claims to have served in the Marines (He says he dressed like a 'tree', so he was a 'tree'. Hospital Corpsmen are weird.)

Droz Family History:
My last name, Droz is a derivative of Humbert-Droz, which was a derivative of Droz. The farthest I can trace is Jean Pierre Humbert-Droz of Lignieres, Neuchatel, Switzerland, the father of Theophile Humbert-Droz (M/1830-18xx) and Marianne (Humbert-Droz) Descombes. The name was shortened in 1849 when his son, Emile (Humbert-)Droz came to America from La Chaux De Fonds, Switzerland with his brother Eugene (Did he keep the H in his middle name for Humbert?). Eugene (probably) married in Indiana and went west (to Iowa?), if family lore bares out. Emile put down roots in Athens Township, Ohio. He had nine children with his wife, Adelaide Brown. They were Elfie (Droz) Anderson (F/18xx-19xx), Charles Adolphis Droz (M/18xx-19xx), Seldon Earl Droz (M/1858-1919), Lucy Ann (Droz) Hill (F/1859-1919), Addison Droz (M/1860-1888), Katherine (Droz) Hoskinson (F/1861-1942), Luella Droz (F/1863-1864), Julius Droz (M/ 1865-1865), and Forella (Droz) Hull (1872-19xx). Seldon Earl Droz stayed local and married Emma Halbirt. They had four children: Nellie Inez Droz (F/1886-1904), Harry Edwin Droz (M/1888-1900), Emile Perely Droz (M/1894-1962), and Mary (Droz) Reed (F/1899-1990). Emile Perley Droz married another local girl, Dora Bell Vaughn. They had four children, one was my grandfather. The others were Marion Irene (Droz) Hays of Charleston, WV, Mary Pauline (Droz) Tippie of Painesville, OH and Beatrice Marie (Droz) Smith (F/1922-1989) of The Plains, OH. My grandfather moved to Columbus, Ohio to work in the aircraft industry. His initials are inside the fuselage of many plane as he was an inspector. He met and married Ruth Mullins, had five children, then retired in the 1970's to San Carlos Park, south of Fort Myers, Florida. Most of his children follwed him, looking for work in the Sunshine state: my Aunt Nancy (Droz), her husband Ken Coffey, who recently passed on, and my cousins Kenny and Bryan; my Uncle Darrin, his wife Belva (Wise) and my cousins Troy, Monica, and Leslie, and finally my family moved, too. Many years later, after the century turned, my Uncle Lee and his wife moved south after his children, my cousins Robin, Kevin, Todd, and Ruthie had grown up and moved out. My Aunt Lorraine (a.k.a. Kim)(Cassidy) their mother and his first wife, passed on. Sadly, Robin has died in a traffic accident in Kentucky. My other Aunt, Cheryl (Droz) recently retired to Florida with her husband Lynn Lazzell. They are the parents of my cousins Jody, Mary Jo, and Tara. My cousin's families and children would require another page of its own to track them down. I really should try to do that sometime. Unfortunately, my grandmother has also passed on.

(I'd like to thank the Bonjour family of Michigan and the Summers family of Ohio for having pieces of the family puzzle for me.)

Hobbies & Interests:
US Highways, EverQuest2 , Manga-style comics (both Japanese and American authors), movies (comedy & action), roleplaying games (dice & paper), Tampa Bay Buccaneers Football, Dilbert, Garfield, Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Maison Ikkoku, anthropomorphic art (TerrieKitten, Eric Schwartz, Fred Perry), unicorns, fantasy art like Tygger Graf's, classic rock (Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynrd), Diet Coke, the History Channel, the Cartoon Network, especially Adult Swim, SciFi Channel, Comedy Central (esp. The Daily Show & The Colbert Report - we all need reliable news sources), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dork Tower, Knights of the Dinner Table, Standard Oil, the Dixie Highway , cats, neon, spicy food - like Hooters wings, beer in moderate amounts, nature hiking, alternate history (esp. Harry Turtledove's books), anything the glows in the dark, stuff that bounces, a little bit of rust, the way the night sky looks when you are far from civilization, also the stuff on this links page

Local Media:
When not watching cable TV, I watch Ch 3 WEDU (PBS), Ch 8 WFLA (NBC), Ch 10 WTSP (CBS), Ch 13 WTVT (Fox), Ch 16 WUSF (PBS), Ch 28 WFTS (ABC), Ch 32 WMOR (Ind), Ch 44 WTOG (CW). At work I listen to Democracy Now!, Fresh Air, Counterspin, RadioNation, Explorations with Michio Kaku, Alan Watts, Alternative Radio, True Talk, Critical Times and other enlightening programs on WMNF 88.5 FM, I commute with WUSF 89.7 FM and occasionally listen to 80's music on WPOI 101.5 FM. For sports: Football - WTBT 103.5 FM, Nascar - WWBF 1130 AM. I read the Lakeland Ledger, and the Tampa Tribune.

Fictional Company: us98 productions
I would like to be able to pour over old maps and drive around the country all the time. I hope to write a book on US Highways by 2026, the 100th anniversary of the system.

From an unpublished interview:

Question: Why are you doing the highways website?
Curiousity, stubborness, ego, and a bit of the Lorax Syndrome. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Seuss, the Lorax spoke for the trees because they had no voice of their own. I have heard the cry of the route bypassed, the hum of the curving old two lane, the wind whistling through the shattered front window of an abandoned business and the crackle of neon from the hardy surviving signs of busier times. Life has to be about more than getting to another exit with the same clump of franchises that were at the last one. America is richer than that, and the US highway system can still take us there. Some of the old highways, like Route 66, have new life, while others like US 25E over the Cumberland Gap, have been obiliterated and exist only in pictures.

Question: Why do you have Standard Oil on this website?
Curiousity and living the first ten years of my life in Ohio. To me, Sohio was THE Standard Oil. There was not even a Enco in my home state, Jersey used Humble there. When I went south to visit the kin in Kentucky, they had a different Standard Oil, obviously each state had it's own Standard, right? When I started collecting maps, the Standard maps came with a torch and oval, chevrons, with a winged horse, the ball and bar or even as Esso or Kyso. I wanted to know who these companies were and why being Standard was so important to them. All the data I found was put on my website and is one of the most popular sections of this site, despite a total lack of any personel records or stock information.

E-mail: [email protected] I try hard to respond to all my E-mails, but if you think I may have missed yours, it's okay to remind me. Also please let me know if a link is broken.

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Last Updated: Friday, July 27, 2007