It is somehow perfect that the last picture I took of Bob was on his tractor blowing snow. A few weeks later he was gone. I am not sure what I want to write about at this point – less than a month since he died. He died suddenly in the early hours of April 4. Cause of death was aortic dissection – aneurysm in his aortic artery. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of Bob. and the obit that was published.
We traveled to Mexico every year with a couple of exceptions. This one was taken early on. The courting phase, as he would say.
Bob and George – he loved our dogs, faithful friends
Robert Hagan Pike
- Apr 6, 2018 — from the Stillwater Gazette
(this was taken at a little cottage on the North Shore of Lake Superior)
Robert Pike, age 84 of Lake Elmo, MN, passed away suddenly on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 due to a heart problem. Bob was born in Jersey City, NJ on Sept. 12, 1933. He grew up in Teaneck, NJ and graduated from the Englewood School for Boys in Bergen, NJ. He said he remembers hanging off the airport fence when he was four years old and he learned to fly at Little Ferry Seaplane Base in New Jersey on the Hackensack River at age 16 in 1949.
Bob graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida in aviation maintenance, and he bought and sold about 14 or 15 small airplanes in his lifetime. He started his airline career as co-pilot for troop transports and then at Capital Airlines, Washington, D.C., where he was a flight engineer, co-pilot and captain. Capital merged with United Airlines and he retired from United in 1993.
In his final years, he was Captain of 747s from O’Hare to Narita, Japan; he was a commercial pilot for 38 years. In 1985, he was in charge of the Chicago based office during the United Pilots Union strike. He held a pilot license, instructor’s license, A&P mechanics, and CFI.
In his retirement, he moved to Adams County in Wisconsin where he lived adjacent to the airport, and then moved to the Twin Cities after his marriage to Judy Gibson, where they both worked on the Lake Elmo municipal library project.
He will be missed by his family and his many friends. Robert was preceded in death by his parents Robert Hagan Pike, Sr. and Marguerite Ann Yeutter Pike, and his wife Dorothy Orofino Pike. He is survived by his wife, Judy Gibson; his brother Charles (Ursula) Pike; his children Robert Hagan (Elaine) Pike, Cindi (Joel) Freeman, Ron Pike (Ann Brooke), William Todd (Jill) Pike; grandchildren, Ryan (Jamie) Pike, Sara Pike, Samantha Freeman, Annie Freeman, Addie Brooke Pike, Taylor Pike and Chandler Pike; and great-grandchildren, Owen, Lucas and Bryn Pike. There will be a family gathering to celebrate his life at his home in Lake Elmo.