Robert A. Wilkinson

He lived a long, rich, and productive life, experiencing many of the key events of the 20th Century.

Bob was born September 26, 1926, in West Palm Beach, Florida, where his father had settled after serving as a pilot in World War I. When his father’s building business went bust during The Great Depression, the family moved to Washington, DC, where Bob and his four sisters spent their childhoods. At the start of World War II, Bob’s father, who was now working for the Farm Credit Administration, relocated with the family to Kansas City, Missouri, where Bob finished high school.

Upon graduation in 1944 at age 17, Bob enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a gunner on naval bombers patrolling the Pacific. Upon discharge, Bob worked briefly as a lumberjack in Wyoming, then enrolled in the civil engineering program at the University of Florida in Gainesville on the G.I. Bill.

At the university, he met Jane Hoisington, also a student. In 1949, they wed in Mt. Dora, Florida. They were married for nearly 68 years, until her death in 2017. As Bob once wrote, “Marrying Jane was the smartest thing I have ever done.”

Following graduation, Bob worked as a civil engineer for the Virginia Department of Highways. In 1965, he went to work for the Asphalt Institute, then for the Ohio Aggregates Association in Columbus. Upon retirement in 1996, Bob and Jane returned to Montgomery Village, Maryland, where they had lived briefly in the early 1970s. They lived in the townhouse on Dunbridge Way until their deaths.

Caring for others came naturally to Bob. Bob and Jane raised two children, Tom and Robyn. He was a devoted grandfather and great grandfather, a good neighbor, and a regular at the Montgomery Village Seniors. He was beloved by all the dogs in the neighbor, who knew he often carried treats in his pocket.

Bob loved sports and was an avid golfer until later in his life. As the son of a builder who grew up during The Depression, he was constantly finding things to fix around the house, even when others didn’t see any need to fix them.

Bob is survived by two children: Tom Wilkinson (Marcia Ruff) and Robyn Ruppert (John); five grandchildren: Chris Wilkinson, Jennifer Smith, Jake Ruppert, Lindsay Baschuk, and Emi Ruff-Wilkinson; and eight great-grandchildren: Sarah, Everett, Sam, Connor, Winnie, Ren, Dylan and Lilly. He was preceded in death by his wife of nearly 68 years, Jane Hoisington Wilkinson, and by a son, William, who died shortly after birth.

Services and Interment will be private.