Lamar Marchese - Author & Photographer

        Renaissance Pioneer  The Life & Times of Florida Frontiersman Joseph Robles ﻿
Come along with Joseph Robles as he embarks on an epic, unchartered adventure, set in the rugged backwoods of newly American Florida. His journey is defined by courage, resilience, and a constant struggle for survival.
Together, Joseph and his ever-expanding family face the daunting challenges that come with forging a new life in the unforgiving wilderness of Territorial Florida. From daily hardships to moments of triumph, their story captures the spirit and grit of pioneers who shaped Florida’s early history.
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                                  Coming soon!﻿

About the book﻿
Although the American West dominates tales of frontier life, Florida in the early nineteenth century was every bit as dangerous and violent as Dodge City or Tombstone, awash with an assembly of cattle rustlers, hired guns and murderous outlaws, seasoned with yellow fever, hurricanes, beastly heat, fearsome predators and justifiably hostile Seminoles.
Into this heady stew sails my fearless great-great-grandfather Joseph Robles, escaping from strife torn Spain and grueling years at sea, he makes a brave and transformative leap from the Old World to the New, jumping ship in St. Marys, Georgia on his 15th birthday, September 15, 1832.
So begins Renaissance Pioneer, a fascinating historical biography of the incredible life of multi-talented Joseph Robles, a very early Hispanic immigrant to pre-statehood Florida. Both tough and smart, Robles and wife Mary Ann guide their ten children on a remarkable journey from survival to prosperity during some of the most tumultuous times in American history.
 To trace his adventurous life over the next 75 years is to chart many of the signature events of the nineteenth century in America; Indian conflicts, the catastrophic Civil War, and the wrenching and profound changes wrought by Reconstruction and Industrialization.
He eventually grows rich with interests in agriculture, lumber, cattle, orange groves and land development. He lives to see the long-delayed coming of the railroad, the beginning of the tourism industry and the rise of the Latin-driven Ybor City cigar business. ﻿
Finally, he is an active participant in the unprecedented growth of Tampa from a backwater Army post to the largest city on the west coast of Florida at the time of his death at age 90 in 1907.

                            ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lamar Marchese is a 5th generation Floridian, born and raised in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. He is the great- great- grandchild of Joseph Robles. He is a graduate of Hillsborough High School, Tampa’s legacy academy. He started his career there in communications, serving on the staff of The Red & Black school newspaper.
He furthered his education by earning a BA from the then brand-new University of South Florida, graduating in USF’s second class. (1964} He then received an MA in Communications from the University of Florida. (1972) Go Gators!
He was a foot soldier in the war on poverty, serving as a member of the first class of VISTA volunteers where he was assigned to the Catoctin Job Corps Center, just down the park road from Camp David, the Presidential retreat. He was there when President Johnson came by to kick the tires. He later taught reading at the Harpers Ferry Job Corps Center. He was a Head Start teacher with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and a media specialist with the Appalachian Adult Education Center at Morehead State University in Kentucky.
Moving west, Lamar spent seven years as the Program Director for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. He and his wife Pat created the founding Board of Nevada Public Radio, the independent, public benefit corporation dedicated to bringing NPR to southern Nevada. He became the volunteer Chairman of the Board and then segued into General Manager in 1979. After four years of organizing, planning and fundraising, KNPR, 89.5 FM signed on the air in March, 1980.
Over the next three decades Lamar guided Nevada Public Radio from dream to institution, building a multi-state network and after a nine-year wait signed on a second Las Vegas station to provide 24-hour classical music to complement the all-news format of KNPR. With a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, he oversaw the construction of a new state-of-the-art office and studio on the campus of the College of Southern Nevada.
He wrote the legislation that resulted in public broadcasters receiving first time funding from the State of Nevada. He served two terms on the national NPR Board and Chairman with the Rocky Mountain Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He received numerous awards and accolades from local state and national organizations for his achievements in public broadcasting, the arts, photography and the humanities, including the Governor’s Arts Award and induction into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He is included in Marquis’s Who’s Who, as a notable broadcasting executive and upon his retirement was honored to be named President Emeritus of Nevada Public Radio 

After 47 years in Las Vegas, Lamar and Pat and Otis, their French bulldog, moved back to Florida, following the great grandparent trail. Lamar loves international travel and delighted in orchestrating family “mystery tours”, where only he knew the destination. Upon the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, he and Pat took a six-month 57 port, around- the- world- cruise! Upon crossing the Equator he turned in his Pollywog status and became a veteran Shellback.
 He is also an accomplished street photographer, an enthusiastic coastal sailor, a decent cook and a manic gardener.  He is the proud parent of son Peter, daughter Julia and grandson Max, and resides in St. Petersburg, Florida with his life partner, Patricia Mae, the love of his life. In June 2026 they will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

About the book

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Into this heady stew sails my fearless great-great-grandfather Joseph Robles, escaping from strife torn Spain and grueling years at sea, he makes a brave and transformative leap from the Old World to the New, jumping ship in St. Marys, Georgia on his 15th birthday, September 15, 1832.

To trace his adventurous life over the next 75 years is to chart many of the signature events of the nineteenth century in America; Indian conflicts, the catastrophic Civil War, and the wrenching and profound changes wrought by Reconstruction and Industrialization.

He eventually grows rich with interests in agriculture, lumber, cattle, orange groves and land development. He lives to see the long-delayed coming of the railroad, the beginning of the tourism industry and the rise of the Latin-driven Ybor City cigar business.

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Finally, he is an active participant in the unprecedented growth of Tampa from a backwater Army post to the largest city on the west coast of Florida at the time of his death at age 90 in 1907.

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