Robert (Bob) Garcia

10/13/1937 – 4/24/2011

We’ll miss seeing Bob Garcia around town, driving his red Dodge truck or walking around with his unique walking stick.

He so enjoyed getting local produce at the farmers’ markets, and regularly shopping at the Marketplace, Browne’s, and Ace, eating hamburgers at Vic’s, and the goodies at Bakery San Juan. He enjoyed the people whom he met wherever his errands took him… Vander Yacht Propane, Harbor Rental, San Juan Healthcare, Merle’s Masonry, Wells Fargo Bank, OPALCO… He had fun at the OPALCO annual meetings, renewing friendships with residents of the other islands he had met at earlier meetings.

He was becoming a marimba musician, taking lessons from Margie Smith and even building his own instrument last December.

Bob was an accomplished leather worker; we’ll miss his hand-tooled leather journals that were sold at last summer’s craft fairs.

Bob loved it on the island. He and his wife Patty traveled from Riverside, California in 1973, planning to settle on land Patty had inherited on San Juan Island. But they stopped in Seattle to earn some money and Bob spent the next 27 years at Boeing, retiring January 1st, 2000.

Bob and Patty built a small cabin on the property thirty years ago and enjoyed many vacations without electricity or plumbing. Finally deciding they needed something they could really live in, Bob supervised the building of their home, breaking ground in 2005.

They moved up in August 2008, selling their home in Ballard.

Bob passed away on Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011.

He was 73 years old. He leaves his wife Patty; children Denise (Roman) and Rebecca (Delfosse) of Riverside, California; Robert, Jr. of Apache Junction, Arizona; Jacqueline, Seattle; and Arna, Friday Harbor; 19 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

A gathering to celebrate Bob’s life will be held on Sunday, June 5th at the family home on Pear Point Road, beginning at 2:00 in the afternoon. For more information, call 370-5131. Please join us.