Robert Turney Stafford

Robert Turney Stafford, age 74, of Dallas, Texas passed away on Monday, April 1, 2024. He was born in Dallas, TX on August 10, 1949. Bob Graduated from South Oak Cliff High School and went on to North Texas University where he earned his Master’s in Business Administration degree. He married Kelly Lee Stafford on November 30, 1996.

Anyone who knew Bob will remember him as a capable, witty, charismatic and loyal person. When he spoke, he always had something interesting or funny to say. He was clever and was a master of Crossword Puzzles and word meanings. He remembered every single zip code and its district in Dallas from the years he worked at the post office as a Manager, while going to school at UNT. He was the youngest Manager ever, at that time, upsetting seniority of his colleagues. Bob also helped design the new facility on Sylvan Ave. He was a big asset to the post office, even during his pursuit of a degree in finance. But that was Bob - his intellect and hard work always put him at the top.

When he was a commercial banker in the 1980s, working for others or later his own company, he funded many of the prominent buildings we now see in Dallas. He played a big part in the Dallas boom of that time. When the industry took a dive he quickly reinvented himself and bought a liquor store, later buying a second location. During this time, the 1990s, he met Kelly and they were married in 1996. He sold that business and began a career in insurance, adding residential mortgages to his vocation a few years later. Bob was unstoppable. He learned a lot from others and always found a path to success. But the philosophy he embraced early in his career was what provided that success. Bob pledged to himself and to God, as a young businessman, to never, ever compromise his values. This is how he always escaped the fate of those in the finance industry who would take shortcuts or justify unscrupulous means to an end. Bob stood firm in his convictions.

Even at the height of his busy life as one of the top producing mortgage brokers in TX, Bob decided he wanted to embrace another career, that of an accomplished author. He had read all the classics and again, learned a lot from the best. He decided to embrace fantasy fiction as his genre and wrote of a young man named Nick, who lived and breathed an exciting life of stock broker/trader in Dallas. Bob used Nick as a character to exemplify much of what Bob had learned in life himself and told a story of a driven young man who at first was guided by his own ego, but quickly realized that his future legacy would only follow the path his heart took. Translation: how you live matters. So he settled down with the girl who embraced these ideals and they set on a path to make this world a better place. The book, Personality + Puissance (available on all platforms), was Bob’s testimony of a life well lived and he was able to share his experience with others, through the life of Nick. Bob was working to market this book when he died and this effort continues on. His dream is for other young men to find the right kind of success with Nick’s life as example.

Bob was not a smiler but others smiled in his presence. He loved to travel and eat out and every waiter or bell boy or taxi driver always remembered him later because of Bob’s wit and humor. He was a giver. A lover of all and an encourager. He encouraged by always taking positive steps in the right direction and succeeding, thus inspiring success. He was nothing short of a cut above. In his final months, Bob witnessed incredible gifts from God of healing and deliverance. He saw first-hand that God was answering his prayers and He was. But God has called Bob home and even though this is not the exact prayer Bob prayed, his prayer for abundant life and for faith eternal has truly been answered. We celebrate Bob as heaven has opened its beautiful, pearly gates for God’s beloved son, Robert Turney Stafford.

Bob is survived by his wife and soulmate, Kelly Lee Stafford, his mother-in-law, Barbara Poteet and his sister-in-law, Kristi Poteet.

Funeral services are under the direction of Sparkman-Crane Funeral Home of Dallas, TX. A graveside service will be held at Greenwood Cemetery, 3020 Oak Grove Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204, at 1:00 pm, April 10, 2024.