Around 1970 or so, John Vergos worked at Perky’s Pancake House in the Downtowner Motor Inn, which was where he met Nelson “Bobby” Ellis.

“I was out of college and working in a corporate training program and Bobby was a busboy at Perky’s,” Vergos said. “He heard you could make more money at the Rendezvous, so he left and I didn’t have a busboy.”

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It worked out OK for both of them. Ellis worked his way up and made a career at the Rendezvous, the Vergos family restaurant.

He died Feb. 22 at age 66, after an extended illness.

“I could not have asked for a better father,” said Nelson Ellis, Jr. “Me and my brothers never did without anything.

“He was a hard man, but he was a loving man. Anything he could do for you, he would do it. He had unconditional love for every person he ever came in contact with.”

One of those was Robert Stewart Jr., known around the Rendezvous as Robert Jr.; his father, Big Robert, also worked at the restaurant for many years.

Bobby Ellis “was like a father figure from the first day I started working there, back when I was in junior high school, in 1982,” Stewart said. “He took me up under his wing. In fact, I had more fathers down there than anyone needed. I could never get in trouble.”

Ellis was 13 when he went to work at the Rendezvous and never left. He was often seated next to the hostess stand, where he could keep an eye on everything and everyone, if he wasn’t checking on the pit.

“He did everything,” Vergos said. “Bobby ran it all. He had complete access to the Rendezvous. If there was a problem, my first call was never to an electrician, a plumber or MLGW. It was to Bobby.

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“We have a big key ring of about 70 keys and Bobby and I are probably the only two people who know where they go. Two to get in the front, two for the back, the men’s room, the elevator and so on. You collect keys over the years.”

Ellis has traveled all over with Vergos on behalf of the Rendezvous.

“We went to cook in New York City, in Australia, to South Beach,” Vergos said. “Bobby went because Bobby was the guy who knew how to do everything.”

He overcame a drug addiction in the 1980s and never faltered after getting clean.

“He came to me and told me his problems and I asked what he wanted to do,” Vergos said. “He said he wanted to get clean, to go to rehab, and he did it.”

He was close to Charlie Vergos, John Vergos’ father and the founder of the restaurant.

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“He saw him as a role model,” Vergos said.

“He was just like Big Charlie,” Stewart said. “He was tough, he was hard, but big-hearted. I’d get so mad sometimes, then the next thing you know, he’d bring me a sandwich and I’d be like, ‘Hey, wasn’t that you cussing me 10 minutes ago?’ You could get mad at him, but how can you stay mad at a man who’s like your dad?”

Besides Nelson Ellis Jr., Ellis is survived by his wife, Thelma Delois Ellis, his son Willie Nelson, and 12 grandchildren. His oldest son, Bobby Nelson, died last year.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.