Robert G. Drake, 88, died at home on January 17, 2023, from congestive heart failure and diabetes. Bob was born in Mishawaka, Indiana on December 5, 1934, to Mary Walker Drake Brunner and Buddy P. Drake. He graduated from Mishawaka High School in 1953. He then served in the US Navy from 1953 to 1955, where he learned survival skills such as how to nap standing up and how to walk carrying a cup of hot coffee. He graduated with his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1960 from TriState College in Angola, Indiana.
Bob will be best remembered for his wry and slightly dangerous sense of humor, including numerous pranks played on family members with a hand-cranked generator. All his grandchildren were warned not to hold any wires for Grandpa, ever. His best friend Paul Hirsch, co-worker David Czocher, and sister-in-law Doris were favorite targets. Doris in particular could hold her own against Bob’s shenanigans.
Bob worked as an engineer for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in the 1960s until he switched jobs to Samuel Moore Wire and Cable in 1968, later Eaton Corporation. For Eaton, he designed and supervised the construction of a factory in Aurora, Ohio. He completed his working career as a plant engineer for Filmco in Aurora when he retired in 2000. He spent most of his retirement driving to Sanibel Island, riding his bike around Sanibel Island, returning to Stow from Sanibel Island, and playing Tetris with his boxes in his minivan to maximize space for the next year’s trip to Sanibel Island. Together with his friends Mick and Sue Paolucci, they solved all the world’s problems weekly over coffee.
On January 23, 1959, Robert Gene Drake married Roberta Jean Gacki of South Bend, Indiana. (Why yes, they do have the same name.) Together, Bob and Bobbie raised four children, Kim (David) Krajci, Paul (Lisa) Drake, Debra Drake, and Diane (Dan) Francis. They have ten grandchildren: Raymond Krajci (Kate Hart), Clara Krajci, Joanna Krajci, and Cecelia Krajci; Lindsay (Craig) Amabile and Rebecca Drake; and Danny (Christine) Francis, Matthew Francis, Kyle Francis, and Petty Officer Second Class Lucas (Emily) Francis; and three great-grandsons, Jude, Knox, and Ford Amabile. Thanks to Bob and Bobbie’s generosity, many of them attended the universities of their choice with little or no debt.
Preceded in death by his parents, his older brother Donald Drake, and his beloved daughter Debra, he is survived by his wife Bobbie Drake; his children Kim, Paul, and Diane; his brother Dennis (Doris) Drake of South Bend, Indiana; his sister-in-law Barbara Drake of Michigan; his sister-in-law and brother-in-law Vickie and Larry Williamson of Muncie, Indiana; several cousins in northern Indiana and across the country; nieces and nephews in Indiana, Michigan, Massachusetts, Florida, and Georgia.
The family wants to thank Dr. Joseph Rinaldi for his attentive care for more than a decade, and Crossroads Hospice for their gentle care and support, especially Brittany Dugan and Samantha Simons.
If you wish, donations to the American Diabetes Association (diabetes.org) in Bob’s name will be appreciated by the family.
Calling hours at 10 AM on Friday, followed by the funeral at 11 AM at Dunn Quigley Funeral Home, 3333 Kent Road, Stow, Ohio.