Robert Hines Turecky

Born in Madison, Tennessee, to Robert Lafayette Hines and Mary Blanche Lyne on March 12, 1939, he loved his summer visits during his childhood to his grandparents’ farm near Olmstead, KY. In 1953-1955 his stepfather Joseph J. Turecky, a USAF officer, took Bob and his mother to Japan, where Bob went to Narimasu High School and learned to count in Japanese, a skill he imparted to generations of his math students in Dallas.

Returning to Nashville, TN, Bob graduated from West High School in 1957 as an Honor student, participating in basketball and many clubs. He had a scholarship to Vanderbilt University, but when his stepfather Joseph J. Turecky, was assigned as CO of a small Air Force base in Rockville, IN, his parents re-directed him to Rose Polytechnic Institute (now Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute), so that he could commute to school and live at home for the next four years. He was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, and of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honorary, as well as the Rose Rifles Drill Team. He held a cadet first lieutenant’s commission in the ROTC unit at the college. Bob was recognized for his achievements in the Civil Engineering Department, and became a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

After graduating with his BS in 1961, he accepted a job with the U.S. Dept of Conservation, surveying land near Gunnison, CO until the Berlin Wall was erected that year, and he was called into active duty with the US Army Corps of Engineers. With many of his classmates from Rose Poly, he was stationed at Ft. Carson, CO, and married his Rockville sweetheart Betsy Alden on July 21, 1962, who finished her bachelor’s degree at Colorado College in Colorado Springs so they could job-hunt when he was released from military service in November, 1963. After working at International Pipe and Ceramics Company in Littleton, CO for 6 months (with three people being killed on the job), he decided to apply to Indiana University’s MBA program, which he entered in 1965.

With their masters’ degrees and an exciting new job at Texas Instruments, they left for Dallas TX, with a new baby (Kathryn Lyne Turecky, born in 1965), a dog, and a bright future with semiconductors. They became parents of two more children (Mary Rebecca, 1967, and Joseph Parkin, 1969), were active in Spring Valley United Methodist Church, Northwood Hills Elementary School, and Richardson High School activities, and enjoyed summer vacations at Betsy’s parents’ new vacation home (Hound Ears) in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. Bob loved to play golf, coach kids’ soccer and basketball teams, cheer on the Dallas Cowboys, keep up with the stock market and latest technological trends, and listen to his favorite Neil Diamond and John Denver music on the stereo.

As their children left for college, Bob and Betsy had an amicable divorce, and he married Shirley (Anderle) Argo in 1987, becoming a wonderful stepfather to her two sons still in high school, Derek and Greg Argo. Bob then began a new career as a beloved Math teacher at Town View High School in Dallas for several years, and everyone continued to join in annual full- family vacations at Hound Ears. After his second Retirement, Bob and Shirley traveled extensively—to Europe, Japan, Hawaii, Egypt, NZ, and the South Pacific. The extended family included Becky’s children in Costa Rica and Greg and Ingrid’s in Australia, with visits made possible by daughter Katy’s parental benefits on American Airlines.

In addition to children Katy, Becky, Joe, Derek and Greg, beloved grandchildren are: Joaquin Roberto Moya Turecky, Isabella Marina Moya Turecky, Nicholas Bradley Turecky, Tyler Maxwell Turecky, Lucas Alden Turecky, Jake Dallas Argo, Emerson Argo, and Callum Argo. Bob leaves a legacy of happy memories with them all.