Lasting Memories

Robert N. McLean
March 6, 1923-Feb. 26, 2017
Sunnyvale, California

Robert Nesbitt McLean passed away Feb. 26, 2017 at Belmont Village in Sunnyvale. He was born in Minneapolis, Mn., grew up in Burlingame, Ca. and in Minneapolis where he attended West High School, graduating in 1941. In World War II Robert served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, in the 376th Bomb Group in Italy, as a waist gunner and flight engineer on a B-24. He flew 48 missions over Europe and parachuted into the Adriatic Sea on his final mission in Sept. 1944 when his plane experienced mechanical problems. In 1945, Robert married Mary Pat MacWilliams of Burlingame, Ca. They were married 66 years until her death in 2012. He studied industrial engineering at Stanford University and graduated in 1948. After graduating he worked at Swift and Co., Fairbanks Morse and E.C. Cooley Co. of San Francisco. Bob worked as a sales engineer specializing in mechanical equipment, principally submersible pumps used in water treatment systems. In the 1980s, he became a partner in SHAPE Inc., a manufacturer’s representative, until his retirement in 2012. He was active in the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto for many years, as well as the Aurora Singers, a choral group. Robert was also for many years a pole vault judge for the Amateur Athletic Union, officiating at the U.S.—U.S.S.R. combined track and field meet at Stanford in 1962. His hobbies included listening to music, singing, swimming, writing limericks, looking for wine bargains and studying French. In his post-Stanford years, he also hosted folk dancing parties with Mary Pat at their home in Palo Alto. In the 1970s he made “hoppy” craft beer in the garage years before it became fashionable. Robert and Mary Pat’s circle of friends included many Stanford and University of California, Berkeley alumni, including Bob and Peggy Arnold, Bob and Jackie Abbott and Bill and Joann Bardet. He took his family on many camping trips around California, to state and national parks and to Ashland, Ore. for the Shakespeare Festival there. Robert is survived by his daughter Ann of Kirkland, Wa., and sons Don of Oroville, Ca. and Jim of Oakland, Ca.