Robert Wallace Gilbert, known to all as Bobby, was 89 years young when he went home to be with the Lord on Saturday January 2, 2021 at 3:45 in the morning. He passed peacefully at home with his adoring family and will be greeted in Heaven by parents Sam and Hazel Gilbert, grandparents Oran and Selma Mahaffey, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a lifetime of friends who precede him.
Bobby was born in Houston on February 20, 1931 and raised in the Heights on Watson Street, where every house on the block lived his close family. His grandparents owned the general store and gas station across the street where he worked after school. Weekends, he worked as a shoeshine and paper boy, proudly tithing from his earnings every Sunday at church. He was a big fan of Rice University football and Houston Buff’s baseball.
Known as “Pongo” in his days as an athlete at Reagan High School and Baylor University, Bobby excelled in baseball, volleyball, tennis, and basketball. When NBC aired their first program in 1948, “The Texaco Star Theater”, the Reagan HS basketball game would be shown using empty air time at the show’s conclusion, making the handsome 6’2” blonde Center, Pongo, as big a star in Houston as the show’s host, Milton Berle.
His Freshman year, with a moderate GPA at Baylor, Bobby was drafted to serve the US Army as an E4 Corporal- Combat Engineer during the Korean War until the war ended in armistice. Honorably discharged, he returned to Baylor and as you may have guessed, easily managed straight A’s.
Putting his business degree to work, Bobby opened the very first USA coed gymnasium in Memphis, TN with a close friend. He loved physical fitness work outs and trained many Hollywood celebrities to get in shape for movie roles. He loved to laugh and tells one story of convincing Ted Cassidy (Lurch from the Addams Family) to go to Hollywood - that with his size and strange appearance he would surely become a big star. Not one to sell memberships, eventually Bobby left the business to his partner who later became the CEO of President and First Lady, which eventually sold to Bally’s!
Back in Houston in 1963, Bobby met Barbara Slater at Fitzgerald’s in the Heights, then a dancehall and diner called The Polish Home. They married and had three children, raising them together in Clear Lake City. Bobby loved being a dad more than any other job he would ever have.
His smile would light up a room and Bobby’s love of life was most apparent on the dance floor, especially while dancing the Whip. He had all the right moves and could make any partner feel like a dancing queen.
Blessed with love a second time in 1992, Bobby met a spirited Irish nurse and missionary, as well as former Mother Superior in the Catholic Church, Bridget Marie Kenneally. After a five-year courtship, the two married at Timber Grove Baptist Church. One of his favorite musings was that Marie had been married only to him and Jesus, as he would tell anyone that listened. They loved to travel together, many of those trips to Marie’s homeland where Bobby was embraced, loved, and held in high esteem by all in her family. He was a friend, mentor, and brother to each. They loved imitating his Texas drawl and found him "a fierce, interesting, and very smart man”.
Bobby loved the Lord and through sharing his faith he brought many souls to Christ. He was proud to be a role model to his children, Sunday school teacher, Outreach and witness minister, and leader of the Royal Ambassadors in his church.
Bobby served as Superintendent of Real Estate for the City of Houston under five Mayors to retirement and then worked for and retired with Houston Metro Transit. Later he was recruited as a consultant for the then-secret Supercollider project in Waxahachie, TX.
Rejoicing in his Ascension and sad only for ourselves left behind, are wife Marie Gilbert, children Tracy Perri, Sam Gilbert with girlfriend Kathy Payne, Kelly Gilbert with spouse Michelle Dean, grandchildren, Kyle and Julia Perri, Ashley, Kyle and Devyn Dean, sisters Judy Beall and Linda Gibson, their children and grandchildren, and his extended family in Ireland.
We will all continue to dance in his honor!
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