Bob was the second oldest of 14 children. He was interested in sports at a young age. At Stivers he played football and participated in track. He was a quarterback and the team captain his senior year. When he was a junior he was part of the “Zimmerman” play. Norb Zimmerman centered to Bob, the quarterback, who then threw to their brother, Bill. In his senior year Bob made the “All City” team. After Stivers, Bob went to the University of Dayton, seeking his degree in Electrical Engineering. He was also a member of the R.O.T.C. Pershing Ries drill squad. On the day of his graduation from UD, May 10, 1942, he was sworn into the Army in the morning, graduated in the afternoon and left for Fort Monmouth, N.J. that night. After attending classes at MIT, Harvard, and Camp Murphy for communications and radar, he was stationed in San Francisco, the South Pacific and Leyte Island. He was in both WWar II and the Korean War. After the Korean War he resigned from the Army Air Corps with the rank of Major.
In 1954 he was offered a position with Northrup and moved his young family to Southern California where he worked on Drone missiles. His career in California included working for Marquardt where he was responsible for research, analysis and evaluation of market requirements for ground transportation. After his three children graduated from college, he was tired of flying coast to coast and he accepted a position with Orange County Transit Authority as the Manager of Bus Operations. The majority of his career was in the radar and communications field.
After WW II he continued his love of sports. He was an avid golfer with numerous holes-in-one. He had a seven handicap and was Club Champion in 1962 at Woodland Hills, CA Country Club and again in 1977 at Hacienda Country Club in LaHabra Heights, CA.
He was married 58 years to his wife Alice. They had three children and four grandchildren. He was a little league coach and Pop Warner assistant coach for his two sons. If he was out of town on business when Jim and Bill had their football games, he always made sure he was home for those Friday night games. Up to 6 months prior to his death he was still playing a good game of golf. Bob died June 1, 2001