OBITUARY: Cocoa Beach Resident Robert ‘Bob’ Thomas Died at Home Aug. 15 at 89

Born During the Great Depression, he was a lifelong Mechanical Contractor

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Bob was born in 1935, during the Great Depression, on a small farm in Missouri.

Things were quite different back then on a small farm in the country. They didn’t have indoor plumbing and had to pump their water from a well.

Their only source of heat was a wood-burning stove. They had chickens, cows, hogs, and a big garden, so they always had enough to eat, even during the Depression.

Bob would help his dad milk the cows, and he really enjoyed singing with his dad in the barn while they milked.

Bob loved to read when he was a boy, especially Zane Grey stories, and he said he would sometimes read until his head hurt. Since they didn’t have electricity, he read by light from an oil lantern.

He had a blind horse that he used to ride to school. It was about 4 miles, and there were several turns between his house and the one-room schoolhouse.

One day, the blind horse got loose from the school and walked all the way home by itself, making all the turns. They found the horse on the gravel road out in front of their house; he missed the turn into their driveway and just stopped in the road.

After graduating from High School, Bob moved to Kansas City and began working in the Mechanical Contracting field. One of his coworkers gave him the phone number of a “nice girl” named Vivian who had just broken up with her boyfriend.

Since Vivian had introduced the coworker to the girl who became his wife, he wanted to return the favor.

Bob tried multiple times to call Vivian, but since she had just bought her first car, she was never home (no answering machines back then). He said that really intrigued him and made him think she must be pretty special to be out all the time. He finally got in touch with her by calling her at her job.

After their first date, Vivian invited him to Sunday Church with her the next day, and she was impressed because he accepted the invitation, even though he wasn’t Catholic.

That started a string of dates in which they only missed going out on 13 days over a span of 6 months. They were married in May of 1958 in the Catholic Church, and were together almost 63 years until Vivian died in 2021.

Bob continued to attend the Catholic Church with Vivian every Sunday for their entire marriage. Vivian had always urged Bob to join the Catholic Church, but he always resisted because his parents were not Catholic. In 2019, Bob, Vivian, and Steve started saying a daily Rosary.

During their rosary in 2021, Vivian again suggested Bob join the Catholic Church. Bob agreed to look into it, and they decided they would meet with Fr. Val after the COVID situation had settled down to discuss the details. Vivian was really pleased.

Sadly, Vivian passed away in 2021, and since COVID was still serious, Bob hadn’t had a chance to move forward with joining the Church.

While donating some of Vivian’s belongings to Mercy House several weeks later, Bob ran into Fr. Val and asked about joining the Church. Fr. Val said that anyone who attends Mass every week for 63 years and says a daily Rosary is definitely ready.

Bob, at the age of 85, received baptism, confirmation, and first communion from Fr. Val during a 4 p.m. Saturday Mass in July 2021.

Bob and Vivian had two sons, Jim and Steve. Sadly, Jim passed away in 2012 of a sudden heart attack at only 52 years of age. Jim had two wonderful daughters who always loved and were really close to their Grandpa. Bob and Vivian both lived with Steve in their later years.

Bob was diagnosed with severe vascular dementia in early December 2024 and was no longer able to walk. He was bedridden and in hospice care at home for 8 months before passing.

During his illness, he remained incredibly sweet and the same wonderful person he had always been. As his condition progressed, he began to speak softly. Frequently, when Steve would put his ear down by Bob’s mouth so he could hear him, Bob would kiss Steve on the cheek.

Bob passed away on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, which seems fitting since the daily Rosary surely had a hand in Bob’s joining the Catholic Church.

Bob truly had a life well lived.

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