The eulogy for my step father, Robert Austin Boundy. I want to give you a glimpse of Robert before his dreadful disease took hold. He was fun to live with. He was exuberant, enthusiastic, humorous – like a little boy, always full of wonder at how the world and universe worked. I’m sure he never realized a letcher’s stock phrase; “come up and see my etchings” when he said to me from the swimming pool where we first met: “Would you like to come to my apartment to see my silk screen prints?” I did – and we were married 4 months later. Robert loved art and was a great museum visitor. Every time he went to NASA headquarters in DC he always made time to visit the art at the Smithsonian. When he made shopping lists there were always drawings of carrots potatoes milk cartons He drew for the fun of it. We had 2 cats named Eleanor and Franklin. One day I found a pencil drawing of 2 cats with just their heads and little paws peeping over a table that had a bowl of food in it. Underneath were the words: “Eleanor and Franklin discover ratatouille is a vegitarian dish. I wish I could find that drawing! Robert loved to make up funny names – Justin Case, Luke Warm, Warren Peace, Fran Tick, Al Bino. His uncle was Harry Brown so Bob thought his uncle should have had a hotel named the Harry Brown Arms. One of his colleagues at JPL love to make his coffee so strong that he got teased it was strong enough to melt the spoons. Bob got busy, made a spoon out of some composit that would melt at a low temperature, placed it so the fellow would pick it up, and sure enough, the spoon began to warp out of shape when he started to stir his coffee. He loved learning new things so after we retired, I got the bright idea that Robert could learn to iron his own shirts and chinos. He loved doing it and at one party I over heard him telling some woman just how he went about it. He also took on cooking every other week and I got to eat some wonderful meals. He was an excellent and creative chef. I have some great new recipes thanks to him. On one trip of which I only remember the first few minutes – while I was unpacking, he went into the bathroom to take a shower. A few minutes later he came out grinning and naked -- except for the sign off the toilet held strategically over the lower portion of his body. The sign said: “Sanitized for your protection”. His humor never left him. Two weeks before he died he was barely able to walk, so we sat and tossed a ball back and forth. The last day we did that I found a yellow ball that had a smiley face on it. We tossed it for a while. Then Bob looked at it carefully, looked at me and grinned, then cuddled the ball in his arms for a few seconds before tossing it to me again. Robert loved his children and my children, his work, art and life. Robert loved parties and he would have loved to see you all here. So as you get your glass of wine or cider drink a toast to Life and to Robert who lived it with joy!
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 18:12:38 +0000
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