- December 4, 2025
Let’s begin along a New Jersey road in 1951. Herb Brattlof is hitchhiking to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Born into poverty during the Great Depression, Herb grew up navigating the streets of East Orange, New Jersey, where sports offered him a path forward. Now, he’s a poor, young man on his way to Lehigh on a football scholarship. From there, athletics, overnight steel-mill shifts, and Army ROTC open the door to a degree in civil engineering. After graduation, he serves two years with the Army Corps of Engineers.
Eventually, Herb’s credentials are sufficient to attract his grammar-school sweetheart, Joan, to marry him for the next 66 years. From a home base in Parsippany, New Jersey, Herb commutes to Manhattan for Turner Construction, working on the 60-story Chase Manhattan building and United Engineering building (40 stories). Then it’s on to Cleveland to work on Erieview Plaza. Then back to New Jersey for Keane Construction, constructing facilities at Fort Dix and various facilities in Picatinny Arsenal.
Amid all this commuting, Herb and Joan have two daughters, Leslie and Nancy. With two young children and growing weary of the Jersey Turnpike, they move to remote Palm Coast, Florida. In 1974, Palm Coast is a new community with about a hundred residents, no grocery store, no gas station, and three-way stop signs at the intersection of Old Kings Road and Palm Coast Parkway. There is no I-95 interchange, and Old Kings is the only road to the community. Homesites west of I-95 are not yet buildable. Herb has no job. What in the world are they thinking?
Well, not only do they survive, but Florida turns out better than they could have imagined. He takes an early is job as project manager on the Rt 206 bridge construction at Crescent Beach. Think of Herb the next time you drive across it.
Then, within the year, Herb starts a construction company to build homes in this fast-growing community. He digs the footings of his first house by hand. And he continues to build. And builds more. Over 1,500 custom homes. He builds the community’s commercial buildings too, including its first fire station, its first post office, first church, original Community Center (then a YMCA), and the Humane Society’s first building. Herb goes on to build Trinity Presbyterian Church, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, all three phases of St. Mark Lutheran Church, Ellis Bank, Pizza Hut, Flagler Palm Coast High School football stadium and cafeteria, DeLand Cultural Arts Center, Denny’s Restaurant, among many others. And he holds leadership roles in the community, dabbling in local politics.
The Palm Coast Parkway stop signs have burst into a major intersection– a palm-treed intersection still a far cry from the gray concrete of the Jersey Turnpike. Palm Coast is now its own city with over one hundred thousand residents. Herb would always say he was at the right place at the right time.
Herb’s daughters come into the business and enable him to retire. He and Joan spend happy years island-hopping the Bahamas on their boat named The Quiet Sun. They travel extensively in Europe and South America. They build their dream home on the Intracoastal Waterway, becoming the first residents in Island Estates. And they later settle in Flagler Beach, where he and Joan have enjoyed drop-by visits from daughters Leslie (Darryl) Thornhill and Nancy (Jed) Gardner; grandchildren Harrison, Morgan, Macie, and Allie; and great-grandchildren Joan-Lucille and Christopher.
Herb’s 92-year abundant life transitioned to God’s next road on July 16, 2025. All those he touched along the way are forever grateful to have been a part of his journey.
His family would greatly appreciate if you would share a memory of Herb with us on the Craig-Flagler Palms memorial page.
Herb loved Flagler County and was very grateful to be a part of the community. In this spirit, the family asks that in lieu of flowers, please consider donating in Herb’s honor to Flagler County Humane Society or Stuart F. Meyers Hospice House.
