Robert William Graper

On Saturday, February 18, 2023, Bob Graper, at the age of 83, passed from life through death into God’s loving presence in Heaven, from MD Anderson Acute Cancer hospital from Leukemia in Houston, Texas. As Paul noted in 2 Corinthians 5:8 – “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

Bob is survived by his beloved wife of 62 years, Marilyn Graper; son, Robert Graper II and his wife Zdena; daughter Christine Grenga and her husband Trace; grandsons Payton, Mackay, and Zachary; granddaughters Veronika, Emma, Ashley and Danielle; and great-grandchildren Eva, Theo, Hank, Milo and Oliver.

Bob was born in Gloversville, New York on January 4,1940 to Raymond and Cora Graper. He is survived by his brother Richard Graper in Newark, Delaware and his 3 sons, David, Dan and Rick and their families.

Bob graduated from Vestal Central High School in Vestal, New York, and received a Chemical Engineering degree from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He married his high school sweetheart, Marilyn, on June 24, 1961, shortly after graduation from Lafayette. Bob served for two years as 1st Lieutenant in the U. S. Army, acting as Ammunition Officer at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Bob started his career with the Moore Products Company in Spring House, Pennsylvania, as a Sales Engineer, selling process control instrumentation to refineries and chemical plants in the Philadelphia area. He was moved to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania sales office, covering the West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky territory. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Sales Manager, opening the new South Charleston, West Virginia, sales office.

In 1968, Bob started work for the Shell Chemical Company in Belpre, Ohio. After 3 years as plant Instrument Engineer, he accepted a move to the Shell Chemical Head Office, in Houston, as Senior Engineer, handling the Instrument Engineering on major projects. Four years later, he transferred to the Shell Chemical plant at Woodbury, New Jersey, covering Instrument Engineering at the Shell Chemical Woodbury and Princeton Plants. After 4 years in New Jersey, Bob accepted a promotion to Staff Engineer, returning back to the Houston Head Office Engineering group. This position is where he spent the remaining years of his career, being promoted to Senior Staff Engineer in 1990. During his career, he worked on Shell Projects in Deer Park (TX), Port Arthur (TX), Norco (LA), Woodbury (NJ), Princeton (NJ), Mobile (AL), Wood River (IL), Belpre (OH), Los Angeles (CA), Martinez (CA), and Anacortes (WA). He was also Shell’s Representative on the American Petroleum Institute Subcommittee on Instrumentation. Bob retired from Shell in 1999; however, he continued to work as a contractor in the field of instrumentation, as a Project Engineer at Honeywell, and directly on projects for Shell. He finally retired “for real” in 2010.

In 1999, Bob and Marilyn bought a weekend lake-house on Lake Livingston and have enjoyed the rest and relaxation available in that isolated environment. It served as a great place for boating, fishing, jet-skiing, tubing etc. Although Bob sometimes referred to the lake-house as his “ball and chain,” he thoroughly enjoyed his time there.

During all of Bob’s adult life, he enjoyed using his God-given gift of teaching. As you can see, he and Marilyn moved numerous times during their marriage, but he taught the Bible in each church they attended – Riverlawn Presbyterian Church (St. Albans, W. VA); Beechwood Presbyterian Church (Parkersburg, W. VA), Westbury Baptist Church (Houston); Cherry Hill Baptist Church (Cherry Hill, NJ); Southwest Bible Church (Houston); Southwest Calvary Baptist Church (Houston); and Sugar Land Bible Church (Houston). Bob & Marilyn have attended Sugar Land Bible Church for 22 years. The Lord has always blessed his teaching, because the Holy Spirit has always been the power behind the man.

Bob will be sorely missed, and those who knew him well will mourn his passing. But they should be comforted in the knowledge that Bob accepted Jesus as his Savior in his teen-age years, by “faith alone” in “Christ alone.” He is secure in the presence of the Lord, with whom he will now spend eternity. John 3:16 -- "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”