Robert J. "Bob" Smethers
Wenatchee, Washington
December 29, 2007

Robert J. "Bob" Smethers loved the sun and hated to be cold. Saturday, December 29, 2007, while in the arms of Norma, his beloved wife of 65 years, Bob moved peacefully to the next level where the sun shines eternally warm and bright. He was 91, born August 17 of 1916 in Beatrice, NE, the second of Elza and Grace's four children. Bob graduated from Beatrice High School in 1934, a schoolboy of some athletic renown in the high jump and pole vault events. Soon thereafter, he migrated to southern California where he attended Long Beach City College and worked several jobs in the area, including Catalina Island managing the local theater and working on a charter fishing boat. Actors Peter Lorre and Ann Sothern were among the customers. Bob was active, athletic and fun-loving and once wore the unofficial crown of Catalina Island Ping-pong Champion. In 1942, he went to work for Northrup Aviation, a major World War II war contractor, while waiting induction after enlisting in the Army. It was there that he met Norma Ping, a young Wenatchee girl and former Apple Blossom princess (1940), was working, along with many other women in those days, to help in the war effort. It was love at first sight and they married shortly thereafter on December 12, 1942. Following three years in the Army, they moved to Wenatchee along with their son, Ran. It was the first time that Bob had seen Wenatchee - they have remained '509ers' ever since!

Bob initially worked for Seafirst Bank as a consumer loan officer before being promoted and transferred to Walla Walla in 1951 where the family remained for three years. By then, a second son, Greg, and their first daughter, Cindy, had been born. In 1954, they moved to Ephrata with Bob taking an executive position with Security State Bank. Always very active in local service clubs, it was in Ephrata that he spearheaded the formation of Little League Baseball (including a dedicated field) and was the organization's president the first three years. In 1958, Bob left the bank to start his own loan company, Time Finance, in Othello and developed it into a very successful venture. It was in Othello that their oldest three children graduated high school and their youngest daughter, Lori, was born ten years after Cindy. In 1967, Bob and his investors sold Time Finance and the family moved back to Wenatchee where he began a productive career as a Realtor, retiring in the late 1980s.

He was a wonderful family man and passionate sports enthusiast (he loved the Cornhuskers!). Bob enjoyed playing golf at Three Lakes as much as possible. He loved poetry and cliches, and was a huge fan of humorist and humanitarian Will Rogers. Bob was a perfect personification of Rogers' well-known line, "I never met a man I didn't like." Not many, if anyone, didn't like Bob. He was that kind of man, friendly, sincere, a Hollywood smile and something nice to say about everybody. Bob considered a liar to be the worst of all sinners and taught all his children the axiom, "the most important thing a man has is his word...if you are not a man of your word, you are not a man." He lived his life by that creed. If Bob Smethers told you something, you could make book on it.

Bob is survived by Norma, now 85 and still spunky; a sister, Betty, of Long Beach, CA; two proud sons, Ran, a retired U.S. Airways captain and Navy commander, and husband to caregiver, Kathy, of Wenatchee, and Greg, a retired Gig Harbor realtor, now living in Wenatchee; two equally proud daughters, Cindy, homemaker extraordinaire and wife of agriculturist Terry Roloff of Othello, and Lori, an imaging technologist at the Women's Healthcare Center and indispensable 'Girl Friday' to Bob and Norma, married to Kurt Horst, an operations manager with BP Alaska, and both of Wenatchee. Bob had a special bond with his six granddaughters and two grandsons, plus four other "acquired" grandsons to whom he is Grampa...period. He is loved and adored by fourteen nieces and nephews, as well as seven great-grandchildren. Bob will be missed by all who knew him. He rests in peace.

A Gathering to Celebrate Bob's Life will be held at Jones & Jones~Betts Funeral Home on Saturday, January 12, 2008, at 2:00 p.m.