Robert Ernest McCoy

It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of our father, Robert Ernest McCoy, on May 7th, 2026. Robert was born on November 7th, 1939, to Marjorie and Ernest McCoy in Bakersfield CA. He was a very busy high school student. He was an Eagle Scout, a varsity swimmer and honors student. He was also a prankster and regaled many people throughout his life with tales of his exploits. Such as the time he put a cherry bomb in a cop car's tail pipe, or used the chemistry lab to disrupt classes at school. This sense of humor clearly came from his parents who on his 16th birthday acceded to his desire to “get something to drive” and gave him a set of golf clubs.

After graduating from East Bakersfield High School, Robert attended the University of California at Berkeley where he majored in architecture. Berkeley is also where he met his first wife Judy and they had two sons, Kevin and Keith. After college, Robert spent many years practicing architecture in the Bay Area and designed many significant buildings including the Pacific Gas & Electric Headquarters and San Francisco’s French Hospital.

During his time living in San Francisco, Robert became an active sailor, racing every week in the local folk boat fleet and joining the St. Francis Yacht Club. He also became an active member in the Bohemian Grove and would continue his involvement in both groups for many years. It was also during his time in San Francisco that he met his second wife Lynn Salander, an artist and teacher, with whom he had two more sons, Carter and Dean. According to Lynn he almost blew this chance with her by having her come watch him sail from shore one week and said “I will be easy to find, I will be wearing a bright yellow set of foul weather gear.” Of course everyone wore bright yellow foul weather gear at that time. Robert was lucky Lynn had a sense of humor.

In 1980 Robert was given the opportunity to design the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX and the family moved to Southern California and settled in La Cañada Flintridge, where they would live for the next 30+ years. After finishing the Bradley Terminal, Robert took over his father’s architecture practice and started his own with a focus on commercial architecture, such as schools and hospitals. During his La Cañada years, Robert and Lynn loved to host parties and the family has many fond memories of dinners that lasted for hours filled with laughter, conversation, and sometimes heated arguments that always seemed to be forgotten by the morning. Robert eventually decided to enter a period of semi-retirement and moved to San Miguel California in 2011 to live in a small cottage on a vineyard- truly an idyllic existence that matched his vision of what retirement should look like. He became a fixture in the Ranchita Canyon Valley where he loved to host parties and became involved in refurbishing the Pleasant Valley School. It was there, among the oaks and grapevines that he was happiest.

Robert was an architect, an engineer, a sailor, an artist, a photographer, and a self-styled chef. He was also a man of exceptional intellect, a great sense of humor, and a passion for learning. He will be missed. Being preceded in death by his wife Lynn in 1993, he leaves behind 4 sons he was extremely proud of, 4 daughters-in-law,10 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, as well as his younger sister Lynn Taylor.