Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I had a friend in State College. His name was Robert Rector; he was constantly dropping in on us at Quest Labs and later at the Witch House. He was considerably older than any of us, by ten to twenty years. In a certain sense he was our "sempai", in that he had been a member of PSSFS forever and a day. He lived out in the borough, in a house he had bought for himself and his then-wife, who had left him not long before I first met him in '92 or so. The marvel wasn't that she left him, but that she had stayed around as long as she did.

Bob was a child in an adult's body. He didn't peel the wings off of flies, but he did snicker at the thought. He had a gross sense of humor, and a delight in the offense taken by others in just about everything. You can still find his comments in the PSSFS attendance sheets archives - look for the "Uncle Mo" and Dr. Jane Poynter entries. He was known for drawing sprawling immensely offensive cartoons on the chalkboards at PSSFS meetings, about the Challenger disaster, Michael Jackson child molestation rumors, and Deliverance-themed gags. He was mildly obsessed by Deliverance, at least partially because he bore something of a resemblance to Ned Beatty - one of his more annoying habits was "squealing like a pig" whenever somebody got homophobic or the subject came up - quite disturbing and a bit nerve-wracking if you were doing something else in the room at the time. Bob was endlessly embarrassing.

He was also more than a little racist. He would go on for hours about Marion Barry, racial quotas, and various other race-themed irritations, most of which I've expunged from my memory because I didn't want to dwell on Bob's race issues. He insisted that he was "black" and that he had color in the woodpile somewhere, and that if we'd ever meet his father, his father was much darker than he. I've since seen pictures of Bob's father, and Bob was selling a bill of goods. Bob just thought it was amusing that blacks insisted that they couldn't be racist, and tried to wedge himself in under that exemption. He loved NWA, and insisted on repeating fragments of their raps in pretty much the same spirit as the pig-squealing.

Bob didn't really work for a living, which always made me think a little less of him - I've got a serious Puritan work ethic bias going, I'm afraid. He said that he managed his family's investments, which seemed to us to be a silly sort of pretension, and that it meant that he was living off of his father's beneficence. Just recently, I discovered that his father had left $10 million dollars in bequests to both of his alma maters - $20 millions all told. Apparently Bob wasn't kidding about the investments - his father had been a surgeon, and the family wasn't old wealth or anything. Bob must really have made that killing on Pfizer that he said he did.

The last time I saw him, he and Dave had visited me at my new digs in Bellefonte, and we had gone out to eat at the Bellefonte Wok, where he insisted on making a series of anti-Chinese jokes in front of the waiters. I kind of yelled at him about that, and then I didn't see him any more. He continued to hang out at Dave's new place in Briarwood for a few more months, and then Dave got tired of his bullshit, and told him to get lost. And he did. And didn't come back. Eventually we noticed that his house was up for sale, and the assumption was that he had gotten tired of kids twenty years younger than him cursing him out, and went back to his parents' farm outside Chambersburg, where he and his father had entertained themselves by collecting tanks and other armored vehicles for their notational "Franklin Military Museum".

I wondered occasionally what happened to him, but I only found out last night, when an idle google search brought up his father's death and bequests. Bob hadn't been important enough for people to notice when he went away, but his father had been a pillar of the community, and he got column-inches, generously enough that they mentioned the fact that his sons had died before he passed. From here, I was able to find Bob's very brief death notices. Bob had died a few days after Dave told him to get lost, shortly after the New Year, in January 2001. We're still not sure what he died of, but he was overweight and lived alone, and our best guess is a heart attack.

For more than four years now, I've had Bob in the back of my mind, judging the world partially by how he would see it, how he would make fun of our increasing political correctness, our need for propriety, our need for decorum. I somehow assumed he was in somebody else's living room, bringing "tribute" and embarrassing the hell out of his hosts before others. It's very strange that the world has been without Bob for four and a half years now. I'm sorry that he's missed so much that would have brought him joy, even if that joy would have been mostly schadenfreude over our failures and petty evils. I can't imagine that a man who drew horrible cartoons of shuttle disasters and who once wore a Waffen-SS uniform through a convention full of rabbis missed something like the September 11 disasters. It just seems... unfair.

Goodbye, Bob.

13 comments:

Paul said...

I remember Bob. Actually I think of him every time his namesake head of the Heritage Foundation comes up in the news, which is how I happened upon your article. Robert Rector (ours, the real one) just ought to be the head of the foremost rightwing think thank. It would be perfect.

Bob was definitely one of a kind. Though I disagree with nearly everything he said or did, your tribute bring back memories.

Yeah, child in an adult's body to be sure. I'm not sure he felt any of the malice that his actions could easily have incited in others. It's a luxury to know him and not be the target of his comments, so while I remember him fondly as a harmless character, I'm not so sure that's right. Good for you, setting him straight at least once.

I realize you wrote this years back, but it looks like you have recent posts, so maybe you'll see this. I left Penn State in 1989 and haven't talked to anyone from PSSFS in a long time. I think we might have met at a con once.

Paul said...

I remember Bob. Actually I think of him every time his namesake head of the Heritage Foundation comes up in the news, which is how I happened upon your article. Robert Rector (ours, the real one) just ought to be the head of the foremost rightwing think thank. It would be perfect.

Bob was definitely one of a kind. Though I disagree with nearly everything he said or did, your tribute bring back memories.

Yeah, child in an adult's body to be sure. I'm not sure he felt any of the malice that his actions could easily have incited in others. It's a luxury to know him and not be the target of his comments, so while I remember him fondly as a harmless character, I'm not so sure that's right. Good for you, setting him straight at least once.

I realize you wrote this years back, but it looks like you have recent posts, so maybe you'll see this. I left Penn State in 1989 and haven't talked to anyone from PSSFS in a long time. I think we might have met at a con once.

Mitch H. said...

Hello, Paul. Are you Paul Callahan (whom I think I met at a PSSFS reunion at Balticon in the mid-Nineties) or Paul Wilson, whom I knew through the anime-con staffing circuit? I don't post here much at all anymore, but I do get the notifications of comments, even though they're 99% bot-spam.

Paul said...

I'm Paul Callahan. I think you're right about Balticon, probably in 1995.

Paul said...

A few recollections (without the embarrassing typos I hope). Disclaimer: it was a long time ago, so I may have some (or most) of this wrong.

I had almost forgotten Bob was married, but I must have met his wife at least a few times. Her name was Denise, right? It never even occurred to me to wonder how they met, but they were a plausible enough couple (at least as much as any couple that included Bob). I had a friend who would regularly explain his whereabouts as "hanging out with Bob and Denise." I think I eventually heard from him that they were divorced, but it's a little hazy.

Bob once claimed he dressed like a hippie in his youth to the point of wearing a Nehru jacket. He was about the right age for that, but I can't imagine him ever sharing the politics. Was it rebellion, style, or just a way to fit in?

I first met him in the mid-80s, and by then he already had a past. I found it odd that someone approaching middle age would be hanging out with college-age SF fans, but I never really thought to ask what he had been doing with so much of his life. I do wonder now, but State College is such a Neverland for aging undergrads that no explanation was really required.

One particular incident comes to mind, and I don't know for sure where it happened. I met Bob's parents, who were visiting. It must have been his house, because he was showing off an Elvis lampstand that he had just acquired. His mother clearly didn't approve of this kind of frivolity (or comprehend it). I forget the words Bob used, but I remember his insisting to his incredulous mother that this purchase brought him great satisfaction.

Of course, the fascination with kitsch and with Elvis was totally Bob, but what got me was that he still seemed to crave parental approval, at least a little, where a grown adult should realize it just wasn't possible. It was side of Bob I had never seen before.

Paul said...

OK, spamming the comments of a blog post from 2005 is probably not the smartest behavior, but here goes again.

Robert Rector actually did get an obituary notice it turns out (maybe you saw it). http://articles.herald-mail.com/2001-01-11/news/25142942_1_memorial-service-death-washington-county-hospital

I always wondered about his age. I thought he was probably older than my oldest brother, and he was--but just barely. He also graduated from Penn, not Penn State, which is something I didn't know. Well, I never doubted his intellect, though he seemed to devote it to the most trivial things.

I can't help thinking that the Bob we knew was already a spent cartridge. PSSFS wouldn't have been the same without him, but I bet the younger man had a lot more on his mind than repeated Deliverance quotes.

My fantasy was that he had gone on to direct the Heritage Foundation in one of those quintessentially American second acts in life. I never believed it of course, but I never did the research to rule it out completely. It would be a crazier more wonderful world if it were so. Or perhaps a saner one, but definitely better.

His brother died in 1972. I never knew that. I wondered if he died in Vietnam, but find-a-grave shows a simple tombstone with no reference to it. No matter the reason, it must have affected Bob terribly.

Mitch H. said...

I knew that his brother died a long time ago, although I didn't know the year. He said that his brother had died in an automobile accident before Nixon's 55 mph law, and I seem to remember there might have been drinking involved. I met his ex-wife once, at a PSSFS reunion/Para-con revival that Fred Ramsay organized in the late 90s. I could see how they would get along, she seemed like the sort to find his antics amusing, at first.

And yeah, he talked a lot about Penn. I think he got a lot of his racial politics from bad experiences while in Philadelphia at school, I've noticed that people from Philly seem... harder-edged on the subject than folks from the western end of the Commonwealth.

I can't picture Bob in a Nehru jacket.

Paul said...

I don't remember him talking about Penn at all, but I was typically watching his antics rather than having a real conversation with him. I'm from the Northwest suburbs of Philly, so I don't know if that counts, but I don't think I'm especially hard-edged about anything. I'm also more than a decade removed from those chaotic times.

It'd be interesting if someone could back me up on the Nehru jacket. I have the vaguest memory of Bob making this claim, while standing in front of a chalkboard (we had 'em back then) in Boucke building. I never pursued the topic and never heard another word about it.

Bill Johnston said...

Bill Johnston here.

I met Bob's wife a few times. John Clarke brought me along to the D&D sessions at their house a few times (soon after I came to Penn State in 1987), before the divorce. Denise was a lively, outgoing woman, and I guess she got tired of just sitting around with Bob.

I remembering Mitch telling me about this back in 2005, and I thought was a shame it was for Bob to die alone. Not that I blame Mitch or Dave; had I still been there, I might very well have been the one to throw Bob out of the living room.

I hear you're working for google, Paul.

Bill Johnston said...

Bill Johnston here.

I met Bob's wife a few times. John Clarke brought me along to the D&D sessions at their house a few times (soon after I came to Penn State in 1987), before the divorce. Denise was a lively, outgoing woman, and I guess she got tired of just sitting around with Bob.

I remembering Mitch telling me about this back in 2005, and I thought was a shame it was for Bob to die alone. Not that I blame Mitch or Dave; had I still been there, I might very well have been the one to throw Bob out of the living room.

I hear you're working for google, Paul.

Bill Johnston said...

Bill Johnston here.

I met Bob's wife a few times. John Clarke brought me along to the D&D sessions at their house a few times (soon after I came to Penn State in 1987), before the divorce. Denise was a lively, outgoing woman, and I guess she got tired of just sitting around with Bob.

I remembering Mitch telling me about this back in 2005, and I thought was a shame it was for Bob to die alone. Not that I blame Mitch or Dave; had I still been there, I might very well have been the one to throw Bob out of the living room.

I hear you're working for google, Paul.

Paul said...

Good to hear from you, Bill. What have you been up to?

John was the one I remember talking about Bob and Denise. I mostly just saw Bob when he happened to show up, and that rarely included Denise. I agree it's no mystery that she would leave him eventually, though he was outgoing in his own way. I wouldn't call him an introvert. It is sad that he died at fairly young age, and sad that nobody was there. Depending on what happened, it might have enough to get him medical attention in time.

I exchanged email with John "recently" meaning four or five years ago. Is he still in Harrisburg? I heard from Stuart Roth out of nowhere last year (if you remember him), and Craig Ruch recently sent me linkedin request, which I accepted, but he didn't actually contact me.

Scott Warren used to keep in touch, but I haven't heard from him much. I have two school-age kids now and not much time for anything besides work and family. And yes, I'm at Google. I've been working there about four years after mostly working at smaller companies in the Bay Area.

Bill Johnston said...

I've been working at the US Naval Research Lab in DC, designing weather satellites. Hopefully one of these days we actually get one off the ground...

This project was started by Clinton, and has yet to produce anything. Keeps getting killed and restructured by budget overruns.

I saw John Clarke a couple of weeks ago up in Harrisburg. He's still working for the state environmental department. He's probably the one who told me you were working for google.

My email address is hakootoko at gmail. There's no point in further clogging up Mitch's blog.