Lebanon County PA Archives Obituaries.....Greenawalt, Robert May 5, 2012 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sharon S. M. shabodeho@aol.com May 20, 2012, 10:40 am Published in Lebanon Daily News on May 8, 2012 Robert Greenawalt LEWES, DE Robert "Bob" Greenawalt, 76, passed away peacefully on May 5, 2012, with his family by his side. He battled Parkinson's disease for over eight years and continued to do the things he enjoyed up until just before he passed away. Bob was born in Lebanon and lost his father when he was just four years old. He spent his teen years working on a dairy farm owned by his step father. He also played trumpet in the Lebanon High School Band. Bob had three older sisters whom are also deceased. Shortly after high school he joined the U.S. Navy with hopes of seeing the world on a ship. He was trained as a corpsman and was stationed in Bainbridge, Md. During his second year of service he was transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps because they needed corpsmen and did not train their own. He was reassigned to the Marine Base at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. He married his high school sweetheart Janet Rice in 1957 and she moved with him to California. After he finished his four-year military commitment, he drove back to Lebanon with Janet and their infant son in the same 1951 Chevrolet that had taken them to California. After arriving back in Lebanon, Bob worked several different local jobs, including a dangerous stint in an iron ore mine and employment as a civil servant on a U.S. Air Force where he worked on guided missiles. In 1967 he moved his family to Bucks County Pennsylvania and began what was to be a distinguished 30-year career with the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. While working for Bethlehem Steel he attended night classes at the Allentown Penn State branch campus and earned a AA degree in metallurgy in order to advance his career. He was soon promoted to Environmental Research Analyst and worked in the Homer Research Center located high atop a hill in Bethlehem. He often travelled to several Bethlehem Steel Plants in the U.S. for weeks at a time and in 1979 he was part of a team that was sent to China as consultants to troubleshoot a Chinese steel plant. He was awarded three patents while working for the Bethlehem Steel and retired in 1997. After retiring at age 62 he and Janet moved to Lewes, Del., where his daughter and her family were living. He became an active member in the Epworth United Methodist Church and served as the original chairman of the building committee that planned for the construction of the new church. He generously volunteered his time to Meals on Wheels, the New Life Thrift Shop and Cape Henlopen Food Basket up until just shortly before his death. For nearly 25 years he vacationed with his family each Summer in Cape Hatteras, N.C., where he loved to surf fish. He was an incredibly gifted craftsman and built furniture in his workshop. Bob truly lived to help others and was a tireless worker. He loved animals, especially dogs and had raised several Dobermans and Pit Bull Terriers as family pets. He is survived by his loving wife of 54 years, Janet (Rice), a son, Robert Jr., and his wife Anne of Huntington Beach, Calif.; a daughter, Kathy Shook of Lewes, Del., and her husband Bill and two grandchildren, Mike and Lindsey also of Lewes, Del. The family would especially like to thank the Delaware Hospice for the kind, sincere and professional care they provided to Bob over the last few days of his life. A Celebration of Life and a reception to follow is scheduled for Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 19285 Holland Glade Road, Rehoboth Beach, Del. Friends may call at the church beginning at 1 p.m. Interment will follow at Epworth Methodist Cemetery, Rehoboth Beach. Arrangements by Parsell Funeral Homes & Crematorium, Lewes, Del. Published in Lebanon Daily News on May 8, 2012 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 4.2 Kb