Retired Air Force Major Robert Paul Sarbell

He was born on October 4, 1939 in Cincinnati, Ohio to his mother Mabel Neff Sarbell and his father Ernest D. Sarbell.

When he was a teenager his family moved to Orlando, Florida. After graduating from high school, he began college classes, but decided to pursue a career in the military instead. He joined the Air Force and began extensive training and deployments both in the US and around the globe.

When as a First Lieutenant stationed at Hunter Air Base in Savannah, Georgia, he met and married Myrna French in 1964.

Robert converted to Catholicism shortly before marrying Myrna. But his conversion was not an official formality or an unnatural change in his beliefs. He had already accepted Christ as his Savior and was baptized by immersion. He was impressed with the Catholic faith after attending his sister's Catholic wedding, so becoming Catholic himself was a new pathway of following Jesus.

Robert and Myrna raised three children and were married for fifty-seven years.

Robert served in the US Air Force for twenty years as a navigator for search and rescue missions. His deployments sent him and his family around the world, including Tachikawa Air Base in Japan and Ramstein Air Force Base in (what was then West) Germany.

After retirement from his military service, he and his family moved to Marietta, Georgia where he worked as a technical writer for Lockheed.

He will be remembered for his outgoing, extroverted nature and ability to make friends everywhere he traveled. In his spare time he enjoyed repairing old radios. He also liked vintage cars, collecting coins, astronomy, and the space program.

Robert is preceded in death by his wife Myrna, his mother Mabel, his father Ernest, his brothers Ernest "Junior" and Joseph, and his sister Susan Matthews.

Retired Major Robert and Myrna are survived by their sons Paul and David, their daughter Katherine Faber, their son-in-law Thomas Faber, their brother John, their sister-in-law Jo Russell Sarbell, his sisters Patti Mills and Elaine Williams, and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly asks that you consider a donation in Robert's name to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.