Robert Charles Brauss Jr.

What kind of a man clambers into the innards of a Navy aircraft’s jet engine in order to get the balky thing started for an impatient pilot who didn’t want to wait for proper repairs? Decades after this incident happened, a man at a military reunion in Corpus Christi, TX, was shaking his head in amazement while laughingly telling the story of the “crazy Marine guy” who actually crawled inside a functioning jet engine – twice – to make it start when the needed permanent repairs to it could not immediately be made.

Another attendee grabbed the storyteller’s arm and said “That crazy guy is here at the reunion. Would you like to meet him?” And so he got to shake the hand of Robert Charles “Bob” Brauss, Jr., military aircraft engine maintainer and repairer extraordinaire.

Bob Brauss was born January 24, 1919, in St. Louis, Mo., and died 98 years later on October 12, 2017, in Ft. Lauderdale, Broward County, FL. In between those dates, he lived a full and productive life, serving his country, traveling the world, marrying and rearing a family, and serving his community…all with that same courage, bravado and pride in his work that that young ‘crazy guy’ showed so many decades ago. In an earlier act of bravado in 1943, Bob stormed into an aircraft assembly hangar to find out who was installing parts on the wrong side of the airplane engines.

Ora Mae Cooksey, a worker there, pointed out that she had been given the wrong schematic. So she wasn’t responsible for the engine errors -- but she very quickly became responsible for winning Bob’s heart. After just three dates, they were married on November 3, 1943, in the Justice of the Peace’s office in Tulsa, OK. – a union which lasted just short of 74 years. For all that time, Bob was known to feel that flying was the greatest love of his life…right after his love for his wife.

After graduating from Beaumont High School in St. Louis, MO in 1937, and taking odd jobs delivering telegrams and working in a grocery store, Bob joined the Army National Guard. In 1940, his unit was mobilized as the Army’s 138th Infantry. When he first arrived in the Philippines in the Pacific during WWII, he was asked to substitute for a tail gunner in a reconnaissance aircraft.

The view from there confirmed Bob’s love of flying! But his expertise was electrical instruments and engine mechanics. And so he dedicated the rest of his military career to maintaining and repairing his beloved airplanes – a task he carried out with a skill and precision which sometimes led to conflicts with commanders who wanted their pilots to fly “on a wing and a prayer” instead of with the solid ‘safety net’ Bob provided with his expert aircraft maintenance.

Bob separated from the Army in November of 1945, and went to work for McDonnell Douglas until 1948, when he joined the US Air Force. He was assigned to California, and in 1949 he and his family were sent to Burtonwood, England, where he maintained planes that were flying the famed Berlin Airlift. After returning home to the States in 1950, the Brauss family was stationed at Air Force bases in Roswell, NM, Topeka, KS and Savannah, GA.

In 1953 Bob joined a U.S. Marines Reserve Unit at Lambert Field in St. Louis, where he spent about 3 years working as an instrument electrician and serving in numerous honor guards for military funerals at Jefferson Barracks. When notified that his unit was shipping out, Bob knew that Marines didn’t get to take their families overseas. Ever the family man, Bob left the Marines and went to Florida in 1956, where he re-enlisted in the Air Force. After some time in West Palm Beach, Bob was sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

As both the largest MATS base and also a SAC base, Dover was a hotbed of aircraft activity during the tense, crucial days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1961, Bob and his family shipped overseas to Yokota AFB, Japan, where the family stayed until August, 1963. A great deal of that 2 years, Bob was TDY to Korea and Vietnam, where hostilities were brewing.

Bob retired from the Air Force in 1963 and from the AF Reserve in 1973. But he continued to use his knowledge of airplanes and electrical systems at Sunbeam (later Thomas Edison Instrument Division), testing and inspecting aircraft flight systems, and then as an Experimental Aircraft Association inspector at Barfield Industries until late 1980.

As a retiree, he served for many years as a volunteer in numerous military honor guards at military funerals in Broward County. He and Cookie also were exceptionally active in the Fort Lauderdale Lions Club from 1989 to 2014. During that time Bob served two years as President and several years as Site Chairman.

Continuing his daredevil tradition, Bob preceded former U.S. President George H. W. Bush by choosing to do a tandem parachute jump in 1999 to celebrate a landmark birthday, his 80th. And just like President Bush did later, he loved it!

At age 96, Bob was escorted from Florida in April of 2015 on an “Honor Flight” to Washington, D.C., to be recognized as one of the few remaining “Greatest Generation” of military men and women in our nation’s history. It was an action-packed, unforgettable day of patriotism, camaraderie, excitement, and moving memories of a country well-served and a life well-lived.

Bob was predeceased by his father and mother, Robert Charles Brauss, Sr. and Hazel Dorothy Parsons Brauss; uncle Wallace Brauss; and four siblings: Irene Heinrich, Dorothy Felice, Hazel Eckstein, and Stuart Wasoba.

He is survived by his wife, Ora Mae “Cookie” Brauss; children Patricia Irene Brauss Martin, James Robert Brauss (Sandra), and Marie Reed (Joel); grandchildren Shane Martin (Jennifer), Kevin Brauss (Margaret Burzachiello), and Kate Jensen (Andrew); and great-grandchildren Savannah Jensen and Jacob Jensen.

Visitation for Bob will be Thursday, Oct 19, 2017, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens, 2401 Davie Road, Davie, FL 33317. Funeral services will be at 10 am Friday, Oct 20, 2017, in the Pyramid on the funeral home grounds.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to: Southeastern Guide Dogs and Service Dogs, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Guide Dogs and Service Dogs provide freedom, confidence, courage and hope for people who cannot see, and for our veterans who have seen too much.

Go to Guidedogs.org for more information and to make a donation. Please note: Any Lions Club members who choose to donate, please add your Lions Club Member ID to your donation information.