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It could be said that Bob Linowes and Montgomery County came of age together. In 1954, the young lawyer joined the county attorney's office just as a building boom was starting. No one else in the office was interested in land use, so Linowes became the expert on the subject. It was an interest that was to serve both Linowes and Montgomery County well.
After establishing his private practice in 1956, Linowes was approached by a company interested in developing the Montgomery industrial park. He spent the next 2 1/2 years steering the project through county bureaucracy. When the proposal finally was approved, the county's industrial acreage doubled overnight: Linowes' expertise led to the building of Montgomery Mall, the development of the Cabin John area, the growth of the Shady Grove industrial area in Gaithersburg, and other projects in both Maryland and the District.
In 1963, he joined with another alumnus of the county attorney's office, Joseph Blocher, to form a new Silver Spring law firm. Linowes and Blocher now has 55 lawyers with offices in DC and Maryland.'
Often called a "community conscience" because of his one-man campaigns to save both the Boy Scouts and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Linowes also has played leadership roles in the Economic Club, the Greater Washington Board of Trade and the Federal City Council.
Linowes is well known in Washington for his cigar and basso profundo voice - but few know that he had considered a theatrical career. In fact, he was one of two successful candidates for an on-air job at WTNJ radio in Trenton. The other was Ernie Kovacs.
Broadway's loss was Washington's gain. Bob Linowes has kept Washington growing in the right direction.
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