Bob has been my brother-in-law for 48 years……he never stopped being my brother-in-law. If I have to put something down in a few words to describe what he meant to me (& to Paul), it would have to be about his always open hands. He was ready to bring those open hands to any situation, to lend them to any need (and we had plenty of needs over the years). Many, many examples come to mind. A flood from a broken water pipe in our home when Katrina came in and we were away. Of course, the first person she thought to call was Uncle Bob, who came running over with his second set of open hands (Wayne), to take charge and fix the problem. Why would she hesitate to call him first, after all, ever since Paul & I married and started being landlords, Bob was a presence in our “emergencies”. And many times his crew included MaryLou and the kids as his back-up. I myself made calls to Bob when I saw that Paul was in a “pickle” time wise to finish a project. In he came, to the rescue, offering expertise and a strong back prepared to be broken. He gave and gave and gave. His children will each attest to that later on when they had homes that needed building, repairing, renovating. Outside projects or inside projects, Bob was tireless. Literally, tireless. And later, when we finally got our new house built, we were in a pinch to get the inside painted. On a dark, cloudy morning, up drives Bob and his supporting cast, Dan & Wayne…..to give up their entire day to get the job done. And Jeff would have been right alongside if he hadn’t lived so far away. So Bob wore many hats. Aside from his “pops” hat, he was a painter, plumber, electrician, life coach, floor/carpet expert, and no job was too small or menial for him. As he crawled through basements and shored up old houses, and emptied waste lines, he never flinched. Why take up space on this beautiful website that his children have created to talk about menial work and physical attributes? Because I feel that is the essence of Bob. His spirit and his generosity, his pearls of wisdom, came not from his mouth…..but filtered through his amazingly creative brain, and shot straight out of his heart. Lucky us, who were targeted by his heartfelt arrows….lucky all who knew him. Jeanni