Roberto Col. Peralta

January 28, 1921 – April 9, 2018

Roberto (Bob) Peralta passed from this world at the Audie Murphy Veterans Administration Hospital in San Antonio, Texas during the early morning hours of April 9, 2018. His passing was peaceful and calm attended by his family and the caring and dedicated staff of the Audie Murphy Hospital. He could not have asked for better care in the final days of his life.

Roberto was born on January 28, 1921 in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico to Manuel Peralta Carlo and Carmen Julia Castillo Peralta. He grew up loving the small town and countryside around Sabana Grande where he enjoyed playing baseball, spending days with his friends at the river, and joking with and teasing his brothers and sisters. Roberto graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Puerto Rico (now Inter American University) in San German where he excelled at academics, baseball and singing in the Massa Chorale.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, he worked briefly for a sugar factory while waiting to try out for a minor league baseball team in Puerto Rico. However, his plans were interrupted when he was drafted into the Army in 1943 and assigned to the 296th Infantry Regiment. He served for 29 years in the Army rising from the rank of private to Colonel. He often told the story of his first assignment in the Panama Canal Zone as a private running past the commander's house during morning physical training. The thought never crossed his mind that 28 years later he would be living in that house as the commander of the Atlantic Area Installations in the Canal Zone.

Due to his education and excellent performance, Roberto was selected for Officers Candidate School and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Chemical Corps in 1944. In 1947 while in the Canal Zone, he met, fell in love with and married his lovely wife and lifetime companion Bernice Irene Purcilly. Roberto served a distinguished career in the Chemical Corps where he tested the effects of nuclear, chemical and biological agents in environments from the tropics to the arctic. Notably, while serving as a division chemical officer in Korea in the early 1960's, he conducted a study of the effectiveness of using the defoliant agent orange in the demilitarized zone. In his briefing to the senior general officers in Korea, he recommended against using the agent due to its ineffectiveness in the type of terrain and vegetation in the demilitarized zone. His recommendation was accepted sparing the area from the now-known, long term effects of agent orange. His most satisfying assignment though was as the Professor of Military Science at the University of Puerto Rico from 1966 through 1969. Greatly admired by his cadets, he expanded the ROTC program to many branch campuses in Puerto Rico and was responsible for commissioning hundreds of cadets as Army officers.

Retiring from the Army in 1972, Roberto drove 3000 miles with his family from his last assignment in Panama through Central America to his retirement in El Paso, Texas. In retirement he continued raising his four sons and playing golf while living many years in El Paso, Texas; Bristol, Tennessee; Kerrville, Texas; and finally San Antonio, Texas. During his final years, he loved to joke with and tease everyone he met and he was most grateful for the wonderful affection he received from the kind, caring people of San Antonio. His family would especially like to thank the wonderful people at the Saltgrass Steak House and China Harbor restaurants on US 281, the La Marginal restaurant on Nacogdoches, and the Broadway Bank branch at Stone Oak. These fine people and many others made the final years of his life enjoyable.

Roberto was preceded in death by his father, Manuel Peralta Carlo; his mother, Carmen Julia Castillo Peralta; his brothers, Julio and Cesar Peralta; his sister, Linda Peralta; and adopted sister, Luz Rios. He is survived by his wife, Bernice Irene Peralta; his sisters, Berta Mainardi and Nilda Peralta; his four sons, Robert, David and wife Jane, Paul and wife Luann, and John and wife Melanie; his grandchildren, Teresa Tomlinson and husband Peter, Alicia Peralta Bornmann and husband John, and Connor Peralta; his nieces and nephews, Cesar Peralta Jr., Manuel Peralta, Luis Mainardi Jr., Berta Mainardi, Virgilio Mainardi and wife Laura, Alberto Peralta and Lisette Lugo; and his six great-grandchildren, Victoria Tomlinson, Peter Tomlinson, Isaiah Tomlinson, Elias Tomlinson, Helen Bornmann, and James Bornmann.

MEMORIAL SERVICE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2018

9:00 AM

PORTER LORING NORTH

2102 NORTH LOOP 1604 EAST

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78232

Inurnment with full military honors to follow in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery at 11:00 AM. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Gary Sinise Foundation.