Sept. 2, 1924 – Oct. 17, 2017
The life of Robert Carl Van Etten (Bob) began in a shoe box behind the kitchen wood stove on September 2, 1924 in Moravia, New York. This three plus pound premature baby boy would sell ladybugs a penny a piece to the women in the neighborhood for their rose bushes, delivered newspapers on his bicycle and watched his father, Roy Van Etten, create custom business suits in his town tailor shop - while his mother, Mildred Teed Van Etten, baked potato bread to sell.
Bob was an Eagle Scout and big brother to his only sibling, Anne Matheson (Stuart Matheson). He attended Cornell University until he was drafted into the army during WWII. He served under Patton and received two purple hearts, returning to finish his college degree in Forestry to work as a Wildlife Biologist and marry Martha B. Crowell, the girl next door and lifelong family friend on March 12, 1953.
Bob and Marty had three children, Margo Anne Barnard (Keith Barnard), David Stuart Van Etten (Jeannine Van Etten), and Heather Marie Calkins (Randall Leland Calkins); whom they raised in Michigan, Pennsylvania and California.
After retiring from the Bureau of Outdoor Management in San Francisco, where Bob planned parks and reservoirs for the Northern United States area, he and Marty relocated to Marrowstone Island to enjoy over thirty years of waterfront retirement.
Marty preceded Bob in death on March 5, 2013.
Family, friends, traveling, gardening in the sea and on land, birding at home and with Audubon groups, documenting rainfall and volunteering time to the Marrowstone Island Community Association, cemetery, ambulance and garden club were all activities Bob enjoyed.
In 1989 Bob and Marty were voted Marrowstone Island Citizens of the Year. Bob was known for his practical nature, good humor, common sense, creative problem solving and carpentry fixes. He repurposed what some would call garbage. I didn’t know plastic maple syrup bottles made excellent bird feeders and plastic liter bottles perfect mini greenhouses for seedlings, when you cut the bottoms off.
Friendly demeanor and inability to complain, he was a natural teacher until his last days, when at 93 years old, in The Ridge Memory Care Center, his final residence, he showed the staff how artichokes grow by planting two in their landscaped beds.
Bob passed peacefully surrounded by love on October 17, 2017 at the Ridge in Silverdale Washington.
It is said that the world should be a better place , because a man has lived. For me, he was one of God’s greatest blessings. I am his youngest child and it has been and will always remain an honor to be his daughter.
To God be the glory, great things He has done; He created Robert Carl Van Etten and made the world a lot better in so doing and then took him home to Mom for eternity.
Bob is survived by his children, grandchildren, great granddaughter, sister, brother in law, nieces, nephews and cousin.
A memorial celebration will be held on Saturday, November 4, 2017 from 2:00 pm to 4 pm at the Nordland Garden Club on Marrowstone Island. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to a charitable cause of your choice or the Audubon Society.
Now we can continue making this world a better place in Bob’s memory. Thank you to all that came to his side to support Dad as he descended the other end of life’s rainbow, The Family.
Bob will be interned with Marty in the Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Washington. Military funeral honors will include a service on site with taps, the 21 gun salute and the presentation of a military flag to the family. The date of this service is still to be determined.
