Guy Edward Robertson

Guy died from an unknown cause in a hospice group home and is survived by a son, Larry E Robertson of Phoenix Arizona and a sister, Georgie Ann Suits of Paradise, California. A carotid artery surgery after several strokes took Guy to an independent living and long term care facility in 2010 and finally to the hospice facility in 2014 where he passed away peacefully on May 10th, 2014.

Guy was twice widowed. Larry's mother, R. Maxine Robertson (Sanders), passed away on December 22, 2008, after 63 years of marriage, cause unknown. His first wife, Doris Myrl Robertson (Hamilton) passed away on February 25, 1943 of pneumonia during Guy's 20mm gunnery training with the Navy in Idaho prior to his sea duty in the Pacific during World War II. His two brothers (William and Richard), a sister (Gertrude), and both parents (George and Leona) pre-deceased him.

Guy was born near Des Moines Iowa on the family farm. When their farm was confiscated through eminent domain (to build the Des Moines Air Port), his family moved to Phoenix Arizona where he attended and graduated from Phoenix Union High School, his only formal education past grade school.

He eventually went to work locally in Phoenix for the Western Electric Company that taught him several technical skills. Because of that training before he joined the Navy, he entered naval service with an electrical engineering rating. As a result, he weathered the war in the Pacific on the USS Orion, a submarine tender, a valued target of our WWII enemies. While his battle stations duty was to man a 20mm gun mount that he trained for in Idaho, his primary job was adjusting, maintaining, and repairing a submarine's master gyrocompass system, from slaving it's servo gyros responsible for navigation, target acquisition, and target tracking, to programming their electromechanical analog computer that provided their dynamic shooting solutions. He received several commendations from submarine Captains for the diligence, efficiency, and accuracy of his work, produced either aboard ship in the Orion repair facilities or during submarine combat patrols as needed.

Guy married Maxine Sanders in October of 1945 after the war while still in the Navy. Son Larry was born in 1947.

Guy left the Navy in December of that same year with an honorable discharge and went back to work with the Western Electric Company in their Phoenix telephony division. In 1950, he was recruited by the Federal Government for a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) assignment to provide an Arizona tribe local and long distance phone service. They moved him and his family to that Arizona reservation where son Larry attended 1st thru 3rd grades in a government tribal school along with his Indian playmates.

Guy left the government after his project was complete and was recruited by an independent New Mexico phone company to establish their county wide local and long distance service in 1957.

By 1967 that project was complete and Guy briefly considered retirement with son Larry off to college when he was again recruited by the Federal government, the REA division this time. He was to provide engineering, feasibility, and specification analysis for startup or expanding independent phone company loan proposals requiring onsite verification. He traveled to government customer sites in the lower 48 to be sure but also as far North as Barrow on the North Slope of Alaska and as far West as the communities in the Aleutians.

And he still had only a high school education.

In that capacity over the years, he moved his wife to Washington DC, Oklahoma City Oklahoma, Salt Lake City Utah, Anchorage Alaska, and back to Phoenix Arizona. He retired from the government as a GS12 in 1987 to Mesa Arizona. He was offered a GS13 promotion even though he did not have the requisite Bachelor's degree but he turned it down because of the required move back to Washington D.C. He was then recruited by an independent phone company in Silver City New Mexico to oversee their expansion and to manage their adherence to government loan program regulations. He took that job and commuted from their Mesa residence to and from Silver City on a weekly basis for five years.

Guy retired for good in 1992 to their Mesa senior's community.

During his retirement years, Guy enjoyed the many cruises with his wife Maxine, the many fishing trips up to Lake Molas near Silverton Colorado with his son, and visiting with his friends and neighbors of his generation in the Mesa retirement community. President Roosevelt once said "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny" '...when the nation was balanced precariously between the darkness of the Great Depression on one side and the storms of war in Europe and the Pacific on the other. It was a critical time in the shaping of this nation and the world, equal to the revolution of 1776 and the perils of the Civil War. Once again the American people understood the magnitude of the challenge, the importance of an unparalleled national commitment, and, most of all, the certainty that only one resolution was acceptable. The nation turned to its young to carry the heaviest burden, to fight in enemy territory and to keep the home front secure and productive. These young men and women were eager for the assignment. They understood what was required of them, and they willingly volunteered for their duty' observed Tom Brokaw. Guy understood what was required of him, and he willingly volunteered for duty. He was a proud member of his generation, America's Greatest Generation.

He was loved and respected, and he will be missed.