Obituary of Robert B. Hines

Robert B. Hines, age 87, died at his home in Atco, New Jersey, on March 19, 2012, surrounded by family and friends. He was born on March 28, 1924 in New York City to Flossie Morris Hines and Jack Benjamin Hines. He is survived by his wife, Judith Hines; sons Blair Hines (Martha) and Glenn Hines (Diane); daughter Melissa Bock (William); 4 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. Bob graduated from Suffolk High School in Virginia in 1942, thereafter attending William and Mary College until he was drafted into the army in February 1943. In the spring of 1944 he was assigned to the 44th Infantry Division that landed six days after D-day. He never liked to talk about his war experience which took him through Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded, and then through Bavaria into Austria. He was grateful to have survived but was deeply cynical about the carnage and causes of war. After discharge, Bob entered the University of Virginia and graduated in 1949. He moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania's graduate school in English and Creative Writing, but did not complete his degree-marriage and fatherhood finding him before graduate studies were completed. He worked at various factory jobs before finding employment first at Texas Instruments and then for Burroughs as a technical writer. He worked for RCA for eight years on a variety of projects involving telecommunications and NASA. He left RCA in 1967 to start a company with several colleagues, Applied Information Industries, working on commerce and defense department telecommunications developments. After leaving AII he worked as a consultant in Washington, DC, before rejoining RCA (now GE Corp.) where he continued to work in telecommunications until his retirement in 1988. He remarried in 1980 and has been happily married to his wife, Judy, for the past 32 years. As a man noted for relentless energy and drive, he excelled at retirement--much to the surprise of his children and friends. In addition to identifying endless maintenance and gardening chores requiring his attention at their home in New Gretna, he became an excellent cook noted for his hospitality: "there's always room at the table." Bob enjoyed world travel and also traveled extensively in all of the lower 48 states. He was an avid reader, always willing to engage in discussions about issues of the day. He was a master member and president of the Bass River Board of Education for six years. Retirement and old age mellowed out all the hard edges of one who grew up during the depression and whose work life started in grammar school. He was never one to complain and always willing to accept responsibility for his circumstances. He will be dearly missed. A memorial celebration of Bob's life will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 24th, at the First Presbyterian Church located at 19 North Maple Avenue in New Gretna. Family and friends are invited to participate. Lunch will be served at the church afterward for all who wish to partake. In lieu of flowers, the family would prefer that memorial donations be made to the Bass River Elementary School, P.O. Box 304, New Gretna, NJ 08224.