Robert Gene Rasmussen

Robert Gene Rasmussen, age 83, passed away suddenly from a stroke on January 30, 2016. He was born June 9, 1932 in Hetland, South Dakota to Evelyn (Bergerson) and Irving Rasmussen. Bob was raised in Colorado with his younger sister, Helen.

Bob joined the U. S. Air Force on May 29, 1951 with his friend, Marvin Holstein. Bob and Marvin met at Haxtun High School in Colorado, they both had Model A cars and managed to skip school frequently. Shortly before graduation, Bob came to Marvin and said “Let’s skip school and go to Sterling and join the Air Force”. They enlisted in the U. S. Air Force on May 29, 1951. After being sworn in they were flown to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for basic training and then to Lowry Field at Denver, CO. Bob became a camera repairman. He completed additional training and on March 18, 1952 Bob boarded the troop ship USNS Collins and sailed to Japan. From there he was sent to Seoul, Korea where he spent the next two years flying surveillance.

Bob returned home with the skills to begin his career as a camera repairman In 1956 he married Mary Parrot. They had two beautiful daughters, Teri Jo and Lori Jean. He decided with his growing family that he needed to make more money. He put his Ham Radio Operator experience and camera repair knowledge to work and joined the Boeing Company. Tragically in 1963, Mary and both his daughters were killed in an automobile accident. Bob was never the same after that.

A few years later, after being laid off from Boeing, he took a job as a commercial fisherman in Alaska. Upon returning to Washington, he became interested in scuba diving which led to a career in commercial diving. He and his partner, Tom, formed MARINE SERVICES UNLIMITED. For the next 18 years they took on many major projects, such as repairing docks, dams, bridges, sunken ships and searching for bodies from plane crashes. On one such job Tom died, and Bob brought him up in a decompression chamber. This hit him hard and he decided to get out of the business.

Bob then enrolled in classes to update his skills. He returned to Boeing. This time he worked for Flight Test as a weatherman and traveled to many places around the country and to Iceland testing weather conditions which would affect flight performance. He also worked on Air Force One.

In 1996, Bob retired from Boeing. He bought and refurbished the RESTLESS WIND, a 39 foot Landfall sailboat. He loved sailing and every summer would sail to the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island.

In 2004 he moved to Port Orchard Marina and later moved to a home in Southworth. A few years later, he received a guitar as a gift and began to sing and play with Chuck and Wanda at open mics. They played at the Alzheimer’s center and it was not unusual to find him all around town at as many as four open mics a week.

Bob enjoyed a long ad interesting life. He said he never had a job that he did not like. We will miss him.

Surviving Bob is his sister, Helen, her husband Grant Farrens, a niece Sandra Caffey, and a nephew Rob Farrens.

Services will be held on February 27, 2016 at 2:00 PM at Rill’s Life Tribute Center, 1151 Mitchell Avenue in Port Orchard, followed by a Celebration of Life at 4:00 PM at Post 2669 VFW, 736 Bay Street, also in Port Orchard. Donations may be made to Auxiliary Post 2669.