92, of Tampa, passed from this life March 15, 2018. Bob was born August 3, 1925 in Howland, ME, and graduated from Howland High School in 1942. Early in his life he realized that he was destined to fly. After one year at the University of Maine, he won an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY and graduated in 1946 with assignment to the Army Air Force. Following flight training at Brady, TX and Enid, OK, his first station was flying B-29’s at MacDill AFB in Tampa. Here he met Betty Mae Hicks and after a short courtship they were married June 7th 1947. In August they were transferred to Dayton, Ohio where Bob attended the Air Force Institute of Technology, graduating 2nd in his class. He was then assigned to the 10th Rescue Squadron in Alaska, stationed on the Aleutian Islands flying SB-17’s. Returning stateside in 1952, he attended the University of Michigan earning a MS degree in aeronautical engineering. His next assignment was to the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) at Tullahoma, TN as project officer on the control system for the Transonic Propulsion Wind Tunnel being developed there. From AEDC, Bob was assigned to the Western Development Division in Inglewood, CA as a project engineer in the development of reentry vehicles for the Thor, Atlas, Titan and Minuteman ballistic missiles. After attending Command and Staff College in Montgomery, AL in 1959, he was assigned to the 6555th Aerospace Test Wing at Patrick AFB in FL for flight tests of the Minuteman Missile. In 1960 this was followed by an assignment to NASA on the Gemini Skylab Programs at the Johnson Space Center, Houston TX. After retirement from the Air Force in 1967, Bob joined the Boeing Airplane Company in technical support of NASA on the Apollo, including the Lunar Rover, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs. Following retirement from Boeing in 1980 he moved to Franklin NC and stayed active with his hobbies of golf, wood sculpturing and painting and in 1992, settled in Tampa, FL. Robert is survived by his loving wife, Betty; sons, Robert C. Buckley, Jr., and Stephen Buckley; grandchildren, Ryan Buckley and Erica DeForge.
A graveside service will be held on Monday, March 19th at 2PM at Myrtle Hill Memorial Park, 4202 E. Lake Ave, Tampa.
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