Uncle Bob Reaches Safe Harbor

Just got word that my Uncle Bob Moore passed away in Muncie, IN.  Bob was my Dad's youngest brother (five years his junior) and the last surviving sibling of the five kids.  Four of the five siblings passed away in the last three years.  The oldest died at the young age of 32 back in the early 60's.  Because of family problems the kids weren't raised together and didn't see much of each other in their younger years.

I didn't get to see Bob much.  He spent more than 20 years in the Navy and lived much of the rest of his life in Indiana, but for a period of time in the early 70's was stationed in Long Beach and the families were able to get together from time to time.  Here's a shot from 1971 of Bob in his Naval uniform during a visit to our home:

I remember him taking us for a tour of his ship and I noticed that some of the sailors had gold stripes on their uniforms while his were red.  I asked him the difference was and he told me the guys with the gold stripes "never got caught".  At the time he was serving on a submarine tender.

We had a ping-pong table in our garage, but I was never very good at it. Bob played a lot while on board ship and he taught me all kinds of spins and serves and made me a pretty good player. We had some spirited matches.  This was taken in our garage about the same time as the photo above - Bob with his game face on.

A few months before my Dad passed away he took a trip back to Indiana and Ohio to visit the towns of his roots, and on the way spent a night with his brother. This is Dad (on the left) and Bob in June, 2009.

I wish I could have spent more time around him.  He tried to come to California for Dad's funeral but got sick the morning of the flight and had to stay home.  His two sons made the trip and Bob Jr. spoke at the service.

Farewell, Uncle Bob, and be sure and say hi to Dad for me.