Bob was born on April 15, 1940 in Sherman, Texas, the only child of Edwin Eikel and Virginia Durham Eikel. As a child he would look out his bedroom window to see the trains of the Texas and Pacific Railroad running behind the back yard, sparking a life-long love of railways and railroading.
In 1943 his family moved to Houston, where Bob grew up and his family were charter members of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. He graduated from Lamar High School, then studied for two years at Washington and Lee University in Virginia before graduating from the University of Texas in 1962.
One of Bob’s high school friends introduced him to his wife, Mary Althouse, in 1964, when they were both graduate students in Washington D.C. After Bob served a brief stint in the Army, they married in June 1967 and moved to New York.
Bob and Mary moved to San Diego in 1970 for a temporary work assignment, expected to last six months. They soon realized that they didn’t want to move back to New York and the short term visitors became long term residents, living in La Jolla for fifty more years while Mary practiced law and Bob built residential developments throughout San Diego County.
Bob was an avid railfan. He served on the board of the San Diego Railway Museum and traveled with equally enthusiastic friends (and sometimes with less enthusiastic family) to see and ride steam trains as near as Campo and as far away as Inner Mongolia. Special birthdays were marked with unique train trips to Los Angeles, Tecate, and elsewhere.
Later in life, Bob started rowing after his children took up the sport in high school. He became a dedicated oarsman and member of the Mission Bay Rowing Association and San Diego Rowing Club, and could be found each spring volunteering at the San Diego Crew Classic. Bob’s rowing adventures took him to Vermont, Boston, and as far as Frankfurt, Germany, where in his seventies he spent a month studying German and rowing at Frankfurter Rudergesellschaft.
Bob was for many years a faithful member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Hillcrest, and later of St. Michael’s in Carlsbad and St. James in La Jolla.
Bob was gregarious and talkative, and many friends remember his wit and humor. He was always curious to learn about new subjects and new people, and his acquaintances quickly became his friends. Above all, Bob was generous to his family, friends, neighbors, and community. He was well aware of his many blessings and shared them freely.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Mary, his children Catherine and Robert, and six grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at St. James By-the-Sea in La Jolla at noon on Saturday, October 9; the burial will be at a later date in Houston.
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Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.merkleymitchell.com for the Eikel family.
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