[1][4] After retiring from playing, Lebel was a referee for nine seasons,[5][6] and briefly coached with the Montréal-Nord Crescent Club in the Intermediate Hockey League.

[2][6][8] During his time as mayor, he initiated the construction of a water treatment facility for the greater Chambly area, completed in 1959.

[1][12][13] When the Hockey Hall of Fame opened its first permanent building in 1961, Lebel represented the CAHA on its governing committee.

[1][4] Lebel became president of the International Ice Hockey Federation in July 1960; he was the second and most recent Canadian to hold the position since W. G. Hardy was elected in 1948.

[1][4] Due to a fear of flying, Lebel preferred a transatlantic crossing by sea, when attending federation meetings in Europe.

[18] The Soviet Union subsequently withdrew in protest, which began speculation of an Eastern Bloc boycott of the event.

[19] Lebel declined requests to relocate the event, said that it would go on as planned, and appealed to the travel bureau on behalf of the East Germans.

[22] After the event, Soviet news agency TASS called for Lebel to be replaced at the IIHF, and for measures put in place to prevent politics in sports.

He was also appointed to the national advisory council on fitness and amateur sports, by health minister Judy LaMarsh on March 5, 1964.

[7] Lebel lived in Chambly after retiring, at 26 Saint-Pierre St.[35] He died at home on September 20, 1999, on the eve of his 94th birthday.

[5][36] He was predeceased by his wife Lucille Bégin in 1987, and survived by his son Jean, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

[5][36] The city flag at town hall was lowered to half-mast for a week, until his burial on September 27, at the St. Joseph Church cemetery in Chambly.

[5] The Journal de Chambly remembered Lebel as being an authoritarian when he was younger, then later in life as sympathetic but direct.

[1] The league also created the Robert Lebel Trophy in the 1977–78 QMJHL season, awarded to the team with the best goals against average.