Robert Moyer Fuller, Sr.

Robert Moyer Fuller, Sr.

Robert Moyer Fuller, Sr., of Wilmington, passed away Wednesday, November 6, 2019.

He was born in 1924, the youngest of four children of Clarence Tracy Fuller and Elizabeth Moyer Fuller. He was a native of Johnstown, NY, and resided in Wilmington, NC, for 40 years.

As a World War II United States Army Air Corps B-24 pilot, Mr. Fuller was stationed in England and flew sorties over Germany. Towards the end of the war his airship was outfitted with newly developed radar-jamming equipment which he and his crew tested. After the war, he continued to serve in the Air Force Reserves for several years.

Mr. Fuller graduated from Union College, Schenectady, NY, in 1949 with a BS in Geology. He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Mining Engineering in 1950 from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD.

He was employed for 35 years by National Gypsum Company, a plasterboard manufacturer, first as quarry superintendent in Ft. Dodge, IA, then as board plant superintendent in Lorrain, OH, and next as plant manager in Burlington, NJ. In 1966 he also oversaw construction and startup of a new facility in southern France. In Mr. Fuller’s final position with National Gypsum Company he oversaw construction, startup, and management of a new plant in Wilmington, NC, prior to his retirement in 1986.

In retirement, Mr. Fuller obtained his master gardener certificate, and worked for over 30 years at the New Hanover County Arboretum as a volunteer carpenter. He was especially proud of the work he and fellow volunteer carpenters contributed in building the Japanese Teahouse, a part of the Japanese Garden at the Arboretum.

As a longtime resident of his neighborhood, Mr. Fuller enjoyed participating in neighborhood projects. In his final years his neighbors, the Newtons and the Bergmanns, looked after his welfare, treating him like family.

Mr. Fuller was a lifelong reader, gardener, animal-lover, and carpenter. He was a thinker and a doer.

Mr. Fuller was preceded in death by his wife, Elsie Margaret Fuller, his parents, and his siblings.

Mr. Fuller is survived by a son, Robert Moyer Fuller, Jr. and his wife, Deborah, of Lantana, TX; a daughter, Margaret E. Fuller and her husband, Richard Mills, of Newport News, VA; four grandchildren, Stephanie Fuller, Vivian Fuller Sanchez and her husband, Christopher Sanchez, Muriel Fuller Mills, and Alex Fuller Mills and his wife, Alicia M. Frame; and two great-grandchildren, Jesse Sanchez, and Abigail Sanchez.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00a.m. Friday, November 15, 2019, at Andrews Valley Chapel. Prior to the service, the family will receive friends from 10:00a.m. until the service hour. Interment will follow at Oleander Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to New Hanover County Arboretum, New Hanover Humane Society, or Lower Cape Fear Hospice.