Bob Jenkins, who insisted on being called “Grumps,” died unexpectedly, with his adoring wife, Joanie, by his side, on the early morning of Monday, November 27, 2023. He was 79, a resident of West Palm Beach, Florida, born in Chicago, and spent his childhood in New Orleans and Fort Worth. Grumps loved New Orleans so much that he resented the entire state of Texas when he was forced to relocate to “Fort Worthless” his sophomore year of high school.
Grumps lived at his parents’ home while attending Arlington State University, so that he could save money to buy his first car, a 1953 Ford. He graduated with a bachelor of art in Math. His first post-graduation job was at Boeing. Grumps met his wife, Dottie, by dragging his car keys along the books in the LSU library to get Dottie’s attention. The two were married in 1968, and relocated to Florida, where he worked for Pratt & Whitney. In Florida, the couple had two daughters and returned to Baton Rouge, where they also had a son. The couple raised their three children in Baton Rouge, just south of LSU’s campus.
Grumps obtained his master of computer science while working full-time at LSU. He retired after 26 years from LSU’s System Network Computer Center in 2000, to become a full-time caregiver for his wife, Dottie, who battled a degenerative motor-neuron disease for her last seven years. Grumps’ technology background eased the burden of Dottie’s disease by utilizing the latest and great technology.
In 2006, at the age of 61, Grumps became a widower, after 38 years of being a devoted husband and caregiver to Dottie.
In 2009, he relocated to Florida and married Joanie Gindlesperger. Grumps and Joanie loved cruising, wearing matching outfits and touring various ports of call. In total, they cruised over 20 times in the Caribbean. Grumps proudly won two blue ribbons during putting contests, which are going with him to his final resting place, along with a large rubber roach and other critters he kept on the shelves of his office at LSU.
Grumps was a lover of all reptiles and amphibians and passed that love down to his children. He often woke up early on the weekends to go on turtle hunts with his children and built an enormous enclosure in his backyard, where he housed hundreds of turtles, including box, red ear and musk turtles.
Grumps was an avid collector of things that mattered to him, and he was a horribly aggressive driver who scared the daylights out of people in and around the cars he drove. Grumps was an incredible writer, and each communication was thorough, thoughtful and told a story unlike any other. We deeply regret we have been unable to locate a draft of his 2023 Christmas Letter, and hope, Dear Reader, you will accept this memorial in lieu of his wit and dry humor.
Grumps taught his grandkids the joys of a fart machine, killing buck moths with tennis rackets, collecting hermit crabs in the bay, catching blue crabs and jellyfish in the ocean, chasing sand crabs at night, among a litany of other things. Grumps was super proud he could ride a bicycle backwards while sitting on the handlebars. He will always be one-of-a-kind and spectacularly grumpy!
Grumps is survived by his wife Joanie; daughter, Jennifer McKnight and husband Scott, son-in-law, Jimmy Tritt; eight grandchildren, Dylan, Collin, Ethan, Brennan and Aidan McKnight, Skyler and Brody Tritt and Brynlee Jenkins; siblings Jack Jenkins and wife Janice, and Jim Bishop and wife Virginia Bunker. He was preceded in death by his parents, Maurine Schilke and Robert L Jenkins, Sr; his in-laws Lucie Mae Bishop, Ann and Bill Champlin and Edwin Bishop. Of note (and widely communicated by Grumps in his infamous annual Christmas letters) are his unfortunately estranged children, Laura Tritt and Christopher Jenkins.
Visitation at St. John’s United Methodist Church, 230 Renee Drive, Baton Rouge, on Friday, January 5, from 10 a.m. until the memorial service at 11 a.m., followed by a reception in the Family Life Center. A private graveside service was held at Greenlawn Cemetery in Hammond. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St. John’s United Methodist Church or the Louisiana Chapter of the ALS Association. Arrangements by Rabenhorst Funeral Home.
