Robert W. Correia

Robert W. Correia, 88, died peacefully in his home in Quincy, Illinois, in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 20, 2025.

He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren when he died. Since his wife, Elisa W. Correia, died last September, his family had been at his side constantly, travelling from Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and New Mexico to hold his hand, laugh at his jokes, and reminisce about the past.

Bob, as he was known to everyone who knew and loved him, was born on April 12, 1937, in Warren, Rhode Island. He grew up playing baseball and basketball with two brothers and three sisters. Bob’s father, Henry Correia, was an avid sports fan who played semi-professional baseball in his youth and was a devoted fan of the Boston Red Sox his whole life. Bob’s mother, Sarah Correia, was active in local politics in Warren, Rhode Island and served for a time as the Chair of the Warren Democratic Party. The family still talks about the time she met with John F. Kennedy during his campaign for President. Bob was an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama. He and his oldest daughter, Amy, along with Bob’s grandchildren, James and Lexi, and their father, Ross Wilburn, braved the cold in 2009 to attend Obama’s first inauguration. Until the end of his life, Bob proudly wore his Obama baseball hat everywhere he went.

After he graduated from Warren High School in the late 1950s, Bob joined the Air Force where he served in Japan. When he returned to Warren, he got a job at the Fore & Aft restaurant, working first as a bus boy and then later as a waiter. It was during this time that he met his future wife on a blind date set up by his older brother. Robert and Elisa, known by all as Lisa, were married in 1961 and then moved to Lake Placid, New York, where Bob studied restaurant management at Paul Smith’s College. He loved the work and excelled in his course of study, and upon graduating was recruited by the Walgreens Company to work as a manager in its restaurant division, which eventually landed him in the Chicagoland area, setting the course of his life with Lisa.

Bob was made for the restaurant business. He loved to drink coffee, work hard, and make people smile. When Walgreens sold its restaurant division in the late 1980s, Bob and his best friend and colleague, Dominic Bandera, purchased the cafeteria in the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago and a diner in South Bend, Indiana. For years, until retiring in the mid-1990s, he split his time between Chicago and South Bend, where he developed a deep love for everything Notre Dame, especially its football team. He wore his Notre Dame hat and sweatshirt often and proudly.

Bob and Lisa found St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, in 1970, while they were searching for a spiritual home for their family and a church to baptize their third child, Alison. They devoted the next 52 years of their lives to St. Barnabas, becoming faithful and beloved members of the church. Bob did a little bit of everything at St. Barnabas. He played St. Nicholas during the holidays, delighting the children. He made coffee on Sundays and cooked meals in the church basement for special events. He bossed everyone around in the food booth during the annual church fundraiser at the DuPage County Fair. His friends and children worked the booth as volunteers during the fair, and everyone learned how to work like Bob: work long hours, laugh often, and give a smile to everyone who needs one. To the impatient worker, he’d say “keep your shirt on.” To the confused, he’d ask, “Are you smoking something?” To the shirkers, he’d say, “go play in traffic.” If you have time to lean, he’d say to groans and eyerolls, “you’ve got time to clean.” He was loud and loveable and went on to lead the St. Barnabas Buildings and Grounds committee during a church building expansion, a proud accomplishment in his life’s work.

Bob liked to work hard and play hard, which became a kind of life motto for him. He enjoyed travelling and was inspired by his close friends, Frank & Roberta Helsom, to buy a motor home in the late 1970s. Every summer, he explored the United States with his family. They travelled through the deserts of the southwest, visited the ocean and mountains along the West Coast, and drove to Rhode Island and Florida to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. With Bob behind the wheel, his children took turns riding shotgun, keeping him company and learning how to read a map. Bob and Lisa became world travelers in their retirement. They saw Italy twice, sailed through Europe on a Viking Cruise, and walked the Great Wall in China. He was a sporting man. He taught his son to hit a curveball, took his kids to Cubs and Sox games, became a locally ranked racquetball player, and developed a healthy obsession for long-distance bicycling. He rode down the Pacific Coast Highway with his good friend Gary Alie in the 1980s. He bicycled through Portugal with his daughter, Amy, in early 90s, and with groups of friends rode on trips through Iowa, Wisconsin, California, and Germany.

Bob never met a stranger. His grandsons, Spencer, Evan, and Warren, often reminisce about the time they were waiting for an elevator with Poppa. “Now when we get on, don’t talk to any strangers,” he told them. “It’s elevator etiquette,” he explained. And then as soon as they got on, Bob broke into conversation with a man about the motorcycle he’d seen the fella driving.

Alison fondly recalls a spring break trip to Washington D.C. that she took with her parents during her senior year in college. Bob planned their entire itinerary, scheduling tours at the FBI headquarters and the White House and picking out restaurants in the evening. She remembers her father teaching her how to figure out the Metro, saying, “Wow” at every sight and sound, and all the strangers Bob befriended in the hotel bar.

In his last years, when Bob and Lisa lived on Middleton Place in Lisle, Illinois, he spent his days gardening, teasing his neighbors, spoiling his beloved dog Sadie, watching the birds outside his porch in the morning, drinking a glass of wine while reading a presidential biography in the evening, or watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.

Bob spent his last days surrounded by his children and grandchildren. His granddaughters, Willa and Harper, held his hand and told him stories about the silly jokes he told and the pranks he liked to play, and the many times he cooked for them when he visited them in Iowa, Maine and finally New Mexico. Lexi gave an impromptu concert with her trumpet on the lawn outside his bedroom. On the day before he died, concerned that his oldest grand child might not have a chance to make one last visit, he turned to his daughter Amy and asked, “Where’s James?” and then smiled when told James was on a flight from New Hampshire. At his bedside on this last day, his children played Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin songs while everyone danced around him. He laughed and smiled, tapping his feet to the beat against the foot of his bed. He pulled his youngest daughter, Alison, in close to say, with a smile, “I am so happy.”

And then Bob reached the Pearly Gates and found St. Peter waiting for him.

“Hiya handsome!” said Bob in greeting. “Welcome Home, Bob, Lisa’s been waiting for you,” said St. Peter in reply.

Bob was preceded in death by his beloved wife of sixty-three years, Elisa Wright (Collins) Correia.

He is survived by his daughter, Amy (Trish) Correia; his son, David (Toni) Correia; and his youngest child, Alison (Eric) Myers; seven grandchildren, James (Kathia) Wilburn, Lexi Wilburn, Spencer (Katy) Myers, Willa Correia-Kuehn, Evan (Dacey) Myers, Harper Correia-Kuehn, and Warren Myers; and one great grandchild, Aurora Myers. All of them were with him when he passed away.

The family offers their heartfelt gratitude to all the staff at Villa St. Benedict in Lisle, Illinois, and Adams Point Senior Living in Quincy, Illinois, for the love and care they showed to Bob and Lisa in the last years of their lives.

Cremation was provided by Butler Cremation Tribute Center.

Bob’s funeral service will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 10, 2025, at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, 22 W. 415 Butterfield Rd, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, make a donation to the St. Barnabas Kitchen Fund.

The family is being served by Butler Funeral Home- Springfield, 900 S. 6th St., Springfield.