Former Orlando biz columnist dies at 76

Dick Marlowe, who wrote a business column for the Orlando Sentinel for nearly two decades, died this week from complications related to a stroke. He was 76.

Sentinel reporter Rich McKay wrote, “For about two decades — usually five days a week — Marlowe wrote a business column for the Orlando Sentinel that was printed beneath a black-and-white photo of a graying man with a handlebar mustache.

“First as a reporter and then as a columnist, he chronicled the rise of Disney World and the hotel kings of International Drive, as this once-small citrus town traded its oranges for mouse ears and waterslides.

“His reporting adventures took Marlowe everywhere from the Apollo space program to golfing with Arnold Palmer and playing pool with Minnesota Fats. (Marlowe won once, but only because Fats scratched the 8 ball.)”

Later, McKay added, “He didn’t like liars, restaurants with matching furniture or menus that called a hamburger something other than a hamburger, friends said. He loved everything about baseball, especially long pitching duels where the victor wasn’t known until the bottom of the ninth inning.”

Read more here.