Bob Kelley, who reimagined his family’s Kelley Blue Book first as a nationwide source of information and then again as a pillar of the early consumer-oriented World Wide Web, died at his home in Indian Wells, California, on May 28. He was 96 years old.
Born to a Los Angeles Ford dealer family in 1927, Kelley graduated from high school in 1945 and, after attending pilot training at the University of New Mexico, returned to work at the dealership in used-car appraisal, which was a major part of the Kelley business model after several wartime years with no new-vehicle production. He also assumed responsibility for the Kelley Blue Book. Begun in 1926 as a list of prices Kelley Ford was willing to pay for trade-in vehicles, the “KBB” had …