Lasting Memories

Robert Campbell Gex
Feb. 8, 1927-April 20, 2015
Palo Alto, California

Robert C. Gex died peacefully on April 20 at Palo Alto Commons after many years battling Alzheimer's disease. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marian; son, Timothy (Jennifer) of Folsom, California; daughters, Nicolette (Philip) Nasr of Santa Cruz, California, and Nancy (Brandon) Goldman of Ashland, Oregon; and seven grandchildren (Mikaela, Marshall, Gabriel, Robert, Sierra, Terrabella and Lila). He was preceded in death by his daughter Teresa Gex.

Bob was born in Long Beach, California on Feb. 8, 1927, the only chid of Luke and Myrna Gex. His mother died when he was just 5 years old. His father died when he was a teen-ager. He graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1944. He served in the U.S. Navy for one year and went on to the University of Southern California (USC) for his A.B. and M.S. degrees, majoring in international relations and library science.

Hoping to qualify for the Foreign Service or other government overseas employment Bob moved across the country to Washington, D.C. in 1951. It was a time of great upheaval in Washington with Joseph McCarthy and his stooges attacking the overseas libraries, the State Department, etc, etc. Bob had to settle for work at the Library of Congress. He shared an apartment with two fellow USC graduates who aspired to the Foreign Service. In October 1953, one of them announced that his younger sister Marian from Nebraska was coming to town to work and attend George Washington University. Bob was the only roommate with a car so he was elected to help her get settled. It was love at first sight! Bob and Marian were married in Nebraska with her family on June 12, 1954, and spent their honeymoon in California meeting Bob's family and friends. They returned to their jobs in Washington but a year later drove back across the country to California without jobs or prospects.

Bob briefly worked as a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library, but soon moved to the scientific, technical world at the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation. He continued in that world when the growing family moved north for him to work at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. His professional life was defined in 1962 when he went to work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). He was head of the library when he retired.

Bob was a passionate man! He was passionate about his family. As an orphan without parents or siblings he particularly appreciated his wife and children as well as his aunts and cousins and friends. He was passionate about sports -- both personal and team -- especially Stanford sports (with conflict when they played USC, his alma mater). He loved women's basketball. He attended every game his children or grandchildren played. He coached Little League teams. He loved his bike. He rode his bike back and forth to SLAC every day, rain or shine until he retired. He rode down and back to the Stanford campus to swim every lunch hour, eating lunch back at his desk in SLAC. He played pickup basketball every Sunday with friends until his knee gave out and he turned to running. Never doing anything halfway, he went all the way to running marathons.

He was passionate about politics! An ardent Democrat, he knew the names and histories of every Congressman, governor, etc., from every state in the union. He kept extensive charts for every election and served on the election board.

Retirement meant increased opportunities for all his passions. He and Marian traveled -- all over Europe and the U.S. Every trip was meticulously planned in advance -- no guided tours for Bob! They had season tickets for theater, symphony, opera, ballet, etc., which continued through the early and later stages of his final debilitating disease.