Eugene Hameroff
Eugene (Gene) J. Hameroff passed away on June 24, 2018 in Tucson, Arizona. Born on December 20, 1921 to immigrant parents in Cleveland, Ohio, Gene is predeceased by his parents, Abraham and Sarah Hameroff; three brothers, Jack, Harry, and Allan; and his beloved sister, Sylvia. He also is predeceased by his wife, Yetta Terri Hameroff and the love of his later life, Jane Akin. Gene is survived by his two sons, Stephen and David (Anne) and his cherished grandchildren, Matthew and Erin.
Upon graduating from Ohio State University, he married Terri, and Gene became the consummate “Ad Man.” He opened his own advertising agency in 1955 and grew it into the largest agency in central Ohio. Gene loved to share his talents and passion for the ad business. He was a mentor to young professionals and taught advertising courses at Franklin University for over ten years. He was a great supporter of the Columbus Jewish Community and his agency did pro bono work for various community organizations over the years. Gene and Terri moved to Florida in the 1980s, where Gene continued to work in the business. He consulted with small agencies around the country for another 15 years, bringing his experience and positive attitude to help newer, smaller and struggling agencies succeed.
In 1999 Gene and Terri moved to Tucson to be with their sons and grandchildren. Gene moved to SaddleBrooke after Terri passed and lived the golden years he had dreamed of – golf, friends, painting, writing articles for the SaddleBrooke News and joining the SaddleBrooke Literary/Art Guild and the SaddleBrooke Singles. It was at SaddleBrooke that he met Jane, his sweetheart of 13 years.
Gene was an accomplished artist whose paintings reflect his love for his family and the Arizona desert. He authored two books in the last decade of his life: When It Is Time to Make the Move, chronicling his decision-making process of moving from his home into an independent living facility; and Revenge of the Communist’s Son, an autobiography of his experiences in the advertising business.
Gene will be remembered for his affable and engaging personality and warm smile. He lived his life with an incredibly positive attitude and a deep belief in the teachings of Dale Carnegie. His family, his friends at SaddleBrooke and his friends at Atria, where he spent the last few years of his life, will miss him dearly. He and his family are eternally grateful for his caregiver Mel and her family who watched over him the last months of his life.
A private graveside service will be held at Evergreen Mortuary. A memorial service honoring his life will be held at Atria at a later date to be announced.
Roy Robson
Roy Robson recently passed away at his home in SaddleBrooke, surrounded by his loving family and caring caregivers. He faced down the ravages of Parkinson’s disease with grace and courage for several years.
Roy led an exceptional and well-travelled life. He was born on February 19, 1935, in Hong Kong, where his father was involved in the shipping business. Before he was two, the hostilities of World War II had commenced in Asia, and his family was forced to flee back to England. There, Roy grew up near Newcastle. As a young boy he experienced WWII in England, sometimes sleeping in bomb shelters, sometimes slipping through barbed wire defenses to play on the beach, sometimes razzing Italian prisoners of war.
After earning his engineering degree in England, Roy emigrated to Ontario, Canada to start his career. Within 2 years, he had met and married Roma Dowling. The young couple and their infant daughter Lori then emigrated to the United States. After briefly working in Wisconsin, Roy and Roma moved to Seattle, where their son Glenn was born.
Roy was a completely devoted husband, father and grandfather. He and Roma were very happily married for over 60 years. He loved his daughter Lori and son-in-law Bill, his son Glenn and daughter-in-law Michelle, and especially Glenn and Michelle’s children Lauren and Christopher.
Roy successfully pursued a career that brought him interesting work — as well as an interesting collection of home towns. When he lived in Ontario he did engineering work for the first civilian nuclear power plant. However, the true love of Roy’s career was airplanes – designing them, planning test flights, and even flying small planes himself. When he lived in Seattle, he did aeronautical engineering work for Boeing on the 727. But fighter jets were his favorites. Roy spent most of his career at McDonnell Douglas, living in St. Louis with his family. There he worked on the F4 fighter, the F18 fighter, and the vertical take-off AV8 Harrier, among others. At home, he surrounded himself with pictures and models of planes he had helped create.
Roy had a well-developed traveler’s comfort in different cultures, reflected in his last official career posting. He took on a two year stint in Italy supervising Italians working on a version of the AV8 Harrier for the Italian Navy. That concluded, he then returned to the United States and retired to Tucson in 2001. However, he was still sought-after as a test flight expert, and for a period during his retirement he was recruited to work in San Diego on a vertical take-off passenger airplane project.
Roy was the youngest of four brothers. At one point, he and his three brothers lived on four different continents. He is predeceased by his parents and two of his brothers, John and Denis. Despite the distance, he always remained close to his surviving brother Bill, a minister in the Church of England.
In their retirement, Roy and Roma loved cruising the seas and ports of the world, visiting a total of 80 different countries over the years. Roy was a quiet, gentle soul with a great sense of humor and an engaging smile. Although generally a man of few words, he was a ready and interesting conversationalist, and he was liked by everyone who met him. Roy was an avid reader and a keen competitor at bocce ball and corn hole. In fact, he retained amazingly good hand to eye coordination well into the progression of his Parkinson’s. He was a great guy, a great husband, and a great father and grandfather. He will be deeply missed.
A Celebration of Roy’s life will be held in the Vermilion Room at the SaddleBrooke One Clubhouse on July 28, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.