There are some many things I don't want to forget about the days leading up to and including his wake and funeral.
*Going to get Drew a suit and Hunter immediatley picking something out for himself. He ended up with the new suit. Drew wore a jacket of Hunter's and a new pair of pants.
* Hunter wanted to get a tie in his Granpa favorite color. Joe called his Mom she said it was blue not dark/not too light and that Grandpa would have that color tie on. We got 3 ties all in the most beautiful color of royal blue.
*It was is that same conversation that I was asked to do a reading and Joe was told that he was voted on as the one to say the eulogy. No pressure. We had been working on an obituary that everyone liked.
*Drew and Hunter were asked to be honorary pallbearers.
*We had a band trip as well as other family members being out of town. Joe's Mom graciously gave enough time for everyone to get home and gather their thoughts. His funeral was a week after he died.
*The wake was from 2-9pm. It was heart warming to have a steady stream of people for all 7 hours.
*ALL of Joe's friends stopping by
*The next morning saying a last goodbye with all 6 of his children gather around their mother and all of his granchildren in attendance.
*The pallbearers being called to circle up for instructions Joe, his brother, Bob and Jim, Son- in- Law George, grandsons Bobby, Drew, Hunter and good friend Tom Dunn.
*The persession to the church and upon entry the preist said the most beautiful prayer and draped a cloth with a cross over the casket.
*The song "Surely the Present of The Lord is in this Place" as we proccessed in.
I read Revelation 21 1-7 The New Jerusalem
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.[a] 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
Joe finished the service with a eulogy befitting of his life. This is what he said:
Robert
Joseph Dorman, a.k.a. "Bob"; entered the Pearly Gates of Heaven on Monday,
April 23, 2012, he was 82 years old.
Apparently there was a need for another electrician to help keep the
lights on.
Survival
Dad
survived being born during the Great Depression; Scarlet Fever and the
resulting 28 days of home quarantine; he
was crushed by an overhead crane at work; had two back surgeries; a quintuple heart
bypass surgery; hernia repair surgery; six
kids; and 30+ years of Meigs disease. But it was Alzheimer's that finally took
its toll on Bob.
The Beginning
He was born
on November 5, 1929, in Chicago ,
Illinois Washburn Trade School
Work, Military, and Civic Life
He
delivered newspapers for the Chicago Herald American Newspaper and worked part
time at Englewood Electric Supply Company making 40 cents an hour.
He joined
Hyre Electric Company in 1947 working in the stock room and loading trucks,
making 60 cents an hour. He spent 4
years working as an electrical apprentice, then 8 years as a foreman until
suffering his back injury. After his
recovery he began working in the office as an electrical estimator and project
engineer, eventually working his way up to the position of Vice President and
remained there until his retirement in 1993 after 46 years of service. His largest project was the Sears Tower Sears Tower Sears
Tower will ALWAYS be the Sears Tower
He was a proud
member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, local # 134 for
over 60 years.
Bob also
served in the Army Reserve for 6 years in the 681st Transportation Truck
Company and received an honorable discharge with the rank of Sergeant.
Dad also
served on the advisory board of St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island
Courtship
He married
the love of his life and best friend, Mary Delores Jann, on September 12, 1953,
at Little Flower Catholic Church. They
met at a Sunday night dance at St. Kilian’s Catholic Church; a dance that Mom
had to lie about her age to get into. You see, she was too young! During their courtship, Dad would call Mom all
the time. During those days you had to actually give the operator the phone
number you wanted to call. He called so
often, that his sisters, who hid under the table to listen and make funny
sounds, still remember Mom’s phone number “Stewart 3 - 0844”. They settled into their
first home on Christiana Street Oak
Lawn ever since.
Family
What a
family he had. Bob is survived by his
wife of 58 years, Mary Delores, his children, Robert (Maureen), Julie Boone, MaryBeth Dorman, Joe
(Tiffany), Joan Crosse (George), Jim (Josune), and grandchildren in birth order,
Kristina, Howard, Ashley, Becky, Kathryn, Bobby, Drew, Hunter, Brittany,
Matthew, Isabel, Sofia and Victoria. Bob
was preceded by his parents, granddaughter Beth Ann Dorman, sister Adeline
Dees, and trusted canine companions Pal, Lassie, Smokey and Juneau
He is also
survived by his siblings, brother Tom, sisters, Dolores Dorman, Betty Bauer,
Mary Pozeck, and Monica Diehl.
Friends
You know
you've found a good man when you can find someone who has been his friend for
80 years. That award goes to Mr. Adolph
Gabriel who first met Dad as young neighbors.
They were so close that they created their own language and would
communicate in a gibberish that no one else could understand. Dad did make other friends over the years and
was a founding member of the ADGVT Club, which was a group of friends that met
monthly for dinner at each other's homes.
Apparently, at some point during the evening, my Dad would saunter
quietly off to the host's bedroom and reset the alarm clock for 2:30 AM. It took awhile for the group to make the
connection that it was my Dad behind the early morning alarms, and not a
malfunctioning alarm clock. But they let
him remain in the club. They still meet
today.
Toys and Hobbies
Pop-up
camper
We enjoyed
many summer vacations camping in National Parks, especially Yellowstone, Grand
Teton, Rocky Mountain, and Glacier National Parks. We started camping in a pop-up camper. In order to save space, Dad would allow each
family member to pack whatever they wanted, as long as it fit into a brown
paper grocery bag, he was the only one allowed to use a suitcase. This is the
reason that Mary Beth came up with the nickname “Chief”. He was the Chief and everyone knew it.
I remember
a camping trip with my Jann cousins. We
were at Devils Lake
Bus
You know,
with all of the things that went on in a house with 6 kids, 2 parents, dogs and
cats, and an undetermined amount of fish.......there is one event that sticks
out in my mind like it was yesterday. It
was the day that Dad came home and said he bought the bus. The family was eating dinner, it was raining
out, and Dad comes in through the side door into the kitchen, he says,
"Guess what, I bought that bus", and he proceeds to walk through the
kitchen into the living room so he could hang up his coat in the front hall
closet. Mom was following him hot on his
tail and she was saying "What?, You bought that bus? How could you?", "Bob, what the
BLEEP were you thinking?"
He spent
many weekends restoring the bus, repairing broken windows, the plumbing system,
and fixing electrical problems. After
about a year of work the family began to enjoy many more years of family
camping.
Now his
family traveled in style and everyone could pack their clothes in their very
own dresser drawer. During vacations
with the bus, my brother Bob and Dad would fight to get in the driver’s seat
first; I was so jealous because I was too young to drive at the time.
I think
that my brother Bob secretly enjoyed driving the bus on those winding mountain
roads with big drop offs right at the edge of road, just so he could watch how
"excited" Mom got seeing those edges.
Hence the term "edge-itis" was coined to describe Mom grabbing
onto anything close to her and holding on for dear life.
Fishing
An avid
fisherman found him the proud owner of 21 foot Fibreform boat where he spent
many weekends and summer vacations chasing after Chinook Salmon in Lake Michigan and Door County Wisconsin. Joan caught the largest fish on his boat,
weighing in at 32 pounds.
BUT, you
should have seen the one that got away! Before the big boat, Julie recalls a fishing
trip when she was about 3 years old when Dad caught and landed a large Northern
Pike. The fish was in the boat flopping
around and Julie was starting to climb the sides of the boat to get out and she
could here Mom shouting at Dad from shore to watch out for Julie. Dad was torn, but after measuring the fish,
he threw it back in the water and kept Julie.
Later that night, he was telling folks about his tale and how large the
fish was and they all said he should have kept the fish because it would have
been a record. Over the years, on those
rare occasions when Julie would do something that was not so pleasing to Dad,
he would mutter "I should have kept the fish."
Somehow, he
even got Hyre Electric to spring for a fishing trip to the Arctic
Circle so he could "entertain customers". That trip resulted in the mounted Rainbow
Trout that has been living in the basement for decades.
When Dad
found a good fishing spot, he would mark the bottom of the boat with an
"X" so he would know where to come back to next time.
Dad taught us
the fisherman's creed: "Early to
bed, early to rise, fish like heck and make up lies."
Stocks
He was an
avid and knowledgeable stock market enthusiast spending many hours reading over
stock reports, looking at stock tables in the newspaper, and preaching his most
famous stock tip, "Buy low, sell high". He also became quite good at predicting the
direction of the next few days, months, or years of trading....his prediction
was...that the stock market would "fluctuate".
Bob would
always fill out those forms to get free annual reports for various companies,
but he would check the "all" box, instead of selecting individual companies,
and within a couple of weeks boxes and boxes of annual reports showed up at the
house.
Dad’s Jokes
Then there
are those corny jokes as his granddaughter Kristina fondly recalled on her
facebook page last week. Have you ever heard this one?
"Do your
hands hurt?"; which you reply "No, why"? And he would say, "Well, they should,
they have nails in them!" AND……he
would laugh every time!
Has anyone
heard his advice on the three most important aspects of real estate? “Location, location, location”.
Did I tell
you I’m working on my 2nd million?
I gave up on the first!
Annnd
another classic……
"Why
do firemen sleep on the second floor?"......everyone, all together
now,....."Because their beds are up there!".
I cut it
twice and it's still too short!
Retirement
Upon
retirement, Dad would frequently comment that he was so busy he doesn’t know
how he had time to work. He would spend
hours and hours every morning hanging out with friends at Dunkin Donuts,
solving the world’s problems and trading stock tips. He now had even more time to devout to his
stock research where he would underline important information in research
reports and newspapers. In the summer of
1995, he was also able to fulfill a dream of his to take a road trip up the Alaska Highway . He
did this trip in yet another toy, a Class-C motor home.
Summary
He was a
faithful man, faithful to his God, faithful to his wife, and faithful to his
family. He worked hard to provide for
his family and taught them respect, kindness, humility, and the value of a
strong work ethic. Bob was a kind man
with a great sense of humor and was always willing to lend a hand.
Dad was
always proud to get in the last word; "Yes Dear".
We would
like to thank:
All of the staff
at Providence Health Care Nursing Home who treated him with care, dignity, and
respect.
And all of
you who visited him at the nursing home; Tom Dunn for his providing his special
attention; and everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers.
I used to
say that my Dad was in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s, well, he’s
not suffering now.
*We processed out to "On Eagles Wings" and in the narthex another prayer was said.
*Afterward we went to a chapel on the cemetry grounds. Everyone gathered close around the casket and the preist said a last prayer.
This is what appeared in the paper:
Robert J. "Bob" Dorman, 82. Loving husband and best friend for 58 years of Mary Delores; beloved father of Robert (Maureen), Julie Boone, Mary Beth Dorman, Joe (Tiffany), Joan (George) Crosse, and Jim (Josune); proud grandfather of Kristina, Howard, Ashley, Becky, Kathryn, Bobby, Drew, Hunter, Brittany, Matthew, Isabel, Sofia, Victoria and the late Beth Ann; devoted son of the late Werner and Adeline Dorman; fond brother of Tom, Dolores Dorman, Betty Bauer, Mary Pozeck, Monica Diehl and the late Adeline Dees. Bob joined Hyre Electric Company in 1947 and worked his way up to the position of Vice President and remained there until his retirement in 1993 after 46 years of service. A 1947 graduate of St. Rita High School and attended Washburn Trade School and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Served in the Army Reserves in the 681st Transportation Truck Company. Proud member for over 60 years of IBEW Local #134. Visitation Monday 3:00-9:00 p.m. Funeral Tuesday 10:15 a.m. from Blake-Lamb Funeral Home, 4727 W. 103rd Street, Oak Lawn to St. Linus Church, Mass 11:00 a.m. Interment Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
