Robert J. Bobb, 81, a former General Electric executive who also built a successful trucking company with his son, died Monday, Feb. 19, in Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn after heart bypass surgery. Mr. Bobb was raised in the small town of Genesee outside Flint, Mich. After graduating from high school, he worked at a bank briefly before taking a job with the Buick Motor Company. When the company sent him to a plant in Melrose Park, he moved in with his aunt in Blue Island. Mr. Bobb enlisted in the Navy during World War II and served in a unit that built bases for U.S. forces in the South Pacific. After the war, Mr. Bobb returned to Blue Island and married Marge, whom he had met while he lived there. The couple had their first son, Robert Jr., in 1947, and a second son, Kenton, in 1952. Mr. Bobb began his career at General Electric when he returned home from the war. He worked in the commercial cooking equipment division for 35 years, earning promotions until he became an executive. Mr. Bobb retired from GE in 1980 and moved to Palos Park. He started a second career, helping his son run a small trucking business, Falcon Express in Markham. “If you called at 6 a.m. on any day, even Saturday and Sunday, my father would be there,” said Robert Bobb Jr. “This is a guy that when I go through the seven sins, he didn’t have any of them. He was just an affable, very even-tempered person.” Mr. Bobb was involved in many community and charitable organizations. He was most proud of his work on the board of St. Coletta’s of Palos Park, an organization that works with mentally handicapped children. He was also on the boards of the Moraine Valley Community College Foundation, Blue Cap School, Crisis Center of South Suburbia, and the Park Lawn Training Center of Oak Lawn. In recent years, he enjoyed spending time with his four grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 2 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Schmaedeke Funeral Home, 10701 S. Harlem Ave., Worth. A prayer service will be held at 10:15 a.m. Friday in the funeral home, followed by an 11 a.m. mass in St. Alexander Church, 7025 W. 126th St., Palos Heights.
