Robert Lane Turner

The greatest husband, father, PopPop, brother, uncle and friend, Robert (Bob) Lane Turner, went to claim his heavenly reward on January 16, 2020. Bob was born Sunday November 17, 1929 at 12:10am in Ballinger, TX to Zander and Ruth Turner and this was the last time Bob was up past 10:00pm.

Bob had 2 younger siblings, a sister, Lurene and brother, Jim. Between the three of them, they managed to keep their parents entertained. During his formative years, Bob thought about a career in fire fighting, but after catching the bed on fire, running out the front door, circling the whole house, and finally going back inside to tell his mother “I believe something’s on fire” that idea obviously went up in smoke. Narrowly surviving his childhood, he entered his teenage years where he attended Ballinger High School. He was in the band and played football. Bob graduated from Ballinger High School in May of 1947 at the age of 17. Shortly after high school, he joined the Merchant Marines, because he was too young to enlist in the Navy to fight for our country. He was a marine engineer from May 1947 until May 1954. At this time Bob was commissioned as a Lt. Jr. Grade in the US Navy where he was a Division Officer and Assistant Main Propulsion Officer on the USS Worcester from 1954-1956. Bob has many, many, many slides of his Navy days and his family has seen them many, many, many times!!! The one thing he made sure to instill in his childrens’ brains, regarding his Navy service, was the difference between a ship and a boat and to confuse the two was ​MUTINY.

After completing his time in the military, Bob moved to Austin and enrolled at the University of Texas and began attending Grace Church of the Nazarene, where he met his future wife, Pat Flynn. He spent the next four years wooing her. Through exercise, weight lifting, animal impressions and his ability behind the “wheel” of a car, despite his driving, she married him anyway on June 3, 1960. Continuing his education, Bob was trying to decide between being President of the United States or Super Hero… ultimately, he decided to light the world and graduated with an Electrical Engineering Degree from UT in June of 1962.

Bob’s first job after graduation was with NASA in Houston..no.. not as an astronaut, but as an Aerospace Technologist, where he developed instrumentation for the Apollo Moon Mission and various other projects one of which included designing a camera for one of the space missions. He received an offer to move to the Naval Ordnance Test Station in China Lake, California in 1963. An offer he couldn’t refuse for two reasons: he would be working in the Guided Missile Division and mainly, because his wife’s sister and brother-in-law lived in China Lake.

While in California, Bob became a father with the arrival of his eldest daughter Teri Lane in August of 1964. Bob was offered a job with Tracor that would move him back to Austin. He was involved with numerous aerospace projects with his time at Tracor. In March 1970 came the arrival of his daughter Kim. Shortly after her birth, he went to work for LCRA as Manager of the Electrical Distribution Department and remained there until his retirement in 1995. He was then able to realize his forgotten dreams of being a super hero. He became the super hero known as PopPop “World’s Greatest Grandpa” with the birth of his first grandson, Zachary in July 1998. Ten years later his second grandson, Chase was born and two years after that, he hit the trifecta with the birth of his 3rd grandson, Silas.

Throughout his life he was a huge fan of sports, especially his Texas Longhorns and Dallas Cowboys. It was often said “you haven’t really watched a football game, until you’ve watched it with Bob Turner.” Bob had burnt orange blood running through his veins and raised his daughters to be lifetime longhorn fans and would often wake them up on Saturday mornings by loudly playing the Texas Fight song. Bob was active in his church and loved spending time with his church family and especially enjoyed teaching his Sunday school class. He loved spending time with his grandsons, Zac, Chase and Silas. He was so very proud of them and so excited to witness their accomplishments. To them he was the “Best PopPop.” He cherished his family very much and his love was very evident to them. He was known to all as a kind, friendly and supportive individual. There are not enough words to describe this wonderful Godly man.

Bob was preceded in death by his wife of 55 years, Shirley Patricia Turner; father, Zander Vernon Turner; mother, Janie Ruth Spoonts; sister, Lurene (Turner) King; and brother, James Vernon Turner. He leaves to cherish his memory his daughter, Teri Lane Aguirre of Richardson, TX and her husband Al; daughters, Kimberly Leigh Turner and Sheri Ann Stewart-Turner of Cedar Park, TX and grandsons, Zac, Chase and Silas; sister-in-law, Lounan Turner; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Wayne and Carol Thun; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Dan and Susan Flynn; numerous nieces,nephews, and their families.

Bob’s priorities were God, his beautiful wife, his family, his church, and his beloved Texas Longhorns. Hook’em!

The family will greet guests at a visitation to be held on Friday, January 24, 2020 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home in Pflugerville, Texas.

A celebration of Bob’s life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 25, 2020 at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home in Pflugerville, Texas.