Summerville, South Carolina
Robert “Bob” Joseph Williams, formerly from Columbus, Indiana, died July 12, 2017, in Summerville, South Carolina. Bob was 85 years old. He is survived by his daughters, Ann Williams from Columbus and Sharon Cocuzza from Somerset, New Jersey. He was preceded in death by his wife of over 50 years, Rita, who died in 2009; sons, Michael, who died in 1974, and David, who died in 2016.
Bob was born Sept. 18, 1931, in Richmond, Indiana, the second oldest of 11 children born to Sylvester “Bill” Williams and Marcella Maurer Williams. Bob grew up in New Paris, Ohio with many siblings: Paul, Joan, James, John, Martha, Rose Marie, Francis, Charles, George and Suzanne. All but Bob and his sister, Joan, are still living. His parents owned a grocery store there for 25 years until they moved to California in 1957.
Bob graduated from high school at Mt. St. John Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 1949. He worked then for various companies in Richmond, Indiana for several years, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served for four years as an electronics specialist on board the aircraft carrier USS Leyte. In this capacity, he traveled to many foreign countries in the middle and far East. Of interest while in Japan, he met a family that his dad, Sylvester, knew in the 1920’s when he worked there for Western Electric Company.
After Bob was discharged from the Navy, he entered the University Of Dayton, Ohio. He married a family friend, Rita Smith, in April 1957 at the Visitation Church in Eaton, Ohio. In 1959, he received a BS degree in electronic engineering. Over the next 30 plus years, Bob worked for Boeing Aircraft in Washington State and Cummins Diesel in Columbus, Indiana and in North and South Carolina until he retired in Summerville.
Bob was a quiet, unselfish person and a wonderful husband and father. He faithfully nursed Rita the last days of her long, losing battle with cancer.
He will be greatly missed by his daughter, Ann (Mike Winchester); his daughter, Sharon (David) Cocuzza; grandsons, Michael and Alexander; and all of his family and dear friends.
A Mass of Christian Burial for Bob will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 19, 2017, at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church with the Rev. James Brockmeier as celebrant. Burial with military rites will follow at Garland Brook Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Myers-Reed Chapel where a Rosary service will be held at 7:30 p.m. Additional visitation will be one hour prior to mass Wednesday at the church.
Memorials in Bob’s name are suggested to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kansas 66675-8517.
Bob, we all miss you already. May God speed you to heaven.
The family will accept online condolences at www.Myers-Reed.com.
Myers-Reed Chapel is serving the Williams family.
