Robert Cliff Cruise

Known to all his friends and family as “Bob”, he was a man of many talents, chief among them the talent of friendship through the art of intelligent conversation, informed by his wide reading, world travels, and a lifelong love of classical music, chess, and contract bridge.

Bob learned to be adaptable to change at an early age by experiencing a major move from Buffalo, where he had attended Kensington High School from grades 9 through 11, to La Grange, Illinois, where he graduated from Township High School in grade 12.

He found his career focus at Purdue University, where he graduated in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. While at Purdue, however, he also discovered his passion for studying history, particularly the political history of the United States. He was also active in the college Democratic Party activities during his student years.

As he had attended college on an ROTC scholarship, he took his commission as as Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1955. He served on active duty from November 1955 through November 1957 at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, outside Washington, DC. He became an Army inactive reserve officer in 1957 and kept that status until 1963.

After his Army service, he began his construction career in 1958 at LaSalle Construction Company in Chicago, Illinois, as an Estimator and Project Manager for both commercial and industrial construction.

Starting in college, Bob also developed a very strong interest in contract bridge, attaining the rank of Life Master. He played regularly and intensively from 1954 to 1969.

It was through his fascination with contract bridge that Bob met his first wife, Shirlee Motter, who was a three-time national champion contract bridge player. They married on September 9, 1967, at Western Springs Congregational Church in Western Springs, Illinois.

Bob and Shirlee moved to Houston, Texas, in 1969 after a four-month trip to Europe. They enjoyed 19 years of a very happy marriage in Houston until her death on May 28, 1986.

In Houston – interrupted by a one-year stint in St. Louis from 1986 to 1987 – Bob enjoyed a rich and varied 30-year career as a construction manager. From 1969 to 1972 he worked for Linbeck Construction Co., as project manager for an Exxon Oil office complex.

From 1972 to 1973, he was employed by OCCO Construction Co. as superintendent of a parking garage construction project at Medical Center, Houston. When that company went into bankruptcy, Bob worked from 1973 to 1975 with various construction superintendent jobs in Houston.

From 1975 to 1985, Bob worked for Beta Construction Co., an asphalt paving company as an estimator and project manager. That company voluntarily closed its doors in 1985.

The economic downturn of the late 1980s found Bob in St. Louis, Missouri, as mentioned above, from 1986 to 1987, doing several jobs including one for Jones and Burns, a paving contractor.

He was fortunate to be able to return to Houston in 1988 to accept a position with the City of Houston as a project manager. Bob managed projects for the departments of Fire, Police, Health, and Public Works until his retirement in 1999.

It was during this time as an employee of the City of Houston, in 1990, that Bob met his second wife, Constance Jones, a San Antonio native known to all as “Connie”.

Bob writes “I met Connie in 1990 when both of us were on a bus tour through Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. Went to Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. I have thought a lot about all the wonders of the lives that Connie and I had. We were able to visit all seven continents and exotic places such as Provideniya, the easternmost city in Siberia; little islands like Christmas Island in the Pacific; and the EXPO in Hannover Germany. We travelled up the Amazon River to Manaus; visited Vietnam; went on Safari in Kenya; and took the first bus trip through Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. When we entered Germany from Poland, it was still East Germany. So much sharing!!!”

Bob is survived by his sister Laura Cruise-Gibson of Indianapolis and three nephews Peter Chastain and John Chastain, both of Indianapolis, and Thomas Chastain of Garden Grove, California.

The funeral service will be held at noon on June 18, 2025, at the Porter Loring Mortuary at 1101 McCullough Avenue in San Antonio.