Robert M. “Bob” Hobson

Hobson, Robert M. “Bob”, 85, on Tuesday, June 9, spent the last moments of his life like hed spent the best moments of his life - with his wife, Shirley, holding his hand and a couple of his children at his side. Robert Mac Hobson was born into a family of printers in 1924. After serving in New Guinea and the Philippines in WWII, he worked for a printing company while he got a journalism degree from Wichita University and was advertising manager for the schools yearbook. He married Shirley Ross in 1947, and it wasnt long before he was the hard-working father of three. Money was short, so he and Shirley worked nights at Orrs Book and Toy Store. Instead of paychecks, they brought home toys that overflowed the living room of their tiny home at 26th and Green. Through the 1950s, he climbed a career ladder from Grit Printing to Acme Litho to Associated Advertising, and then to the Hesston Corporation where he launched that farm equipment companys marketing communications department. For a decade, Bob drove his beloved 1955 Thunderbird from Wichita to Hesston every workday. He left the Hesston job in 1968 in favor of a business venture in Wichita. But when that deal went south, Hobson went north to Milwaukee where he took a lesser job. To make ends meet while Shirley sold the house, he lived in a small, cold room in the Milwaukee YMCA. But life was soon good again when Hobson was named director of marketing communications for Allis-Chalmers. In the mid 1970s, he and Shirley moved to Philadelphia where a job with the Farm Journal was waiting When grandchildren came along, Shirley made it clear that they would be heading back to Wichita. WSU asked Hobson to be the Wichita Eagles Distinguished Professor of Journalism. Eventually, the Eagle hired Hobson to be the newspapers Director of Market Development, a post he held until his retirement in the early 1990s. Before a WWII knee injury, Hobson was an avid tennis player. Throughout his life, he enjoyed stamp collecting, refinishing furniture and planting more trees in more yards than anyone since Johnny Appleseed. He was good to animals, especially the long string of yippy little dogs that he and Shirley have raised over the years. He was the best and most loving father imaginable. He was an attentive and inspiring role model for his children and his grandchildren. And he was the brand new great grandfather of a little girl born just five days before he died. But more than anything, he was a hopeless romantic hopelessly in love with an equally hopeless romantic - Shirley, his wife of 61 years. He adored her and she adored him. Bob Hobson will be missed by virtually everyone he ever knew. In the words of his 100-year-old surviving sister-in-law, “He was such a good man such a good, good man.” Survivors include his wife, Shirley; sons, Robert R. (Lynne) Hobson and Greg (Elizabeth) Hobson; daughter, Georganna Williamson; grandchildren, Graham Hobson, Adam Williamson, Lauren Hobson, Ross Hobson and Regan Doyle; great-grandchild, Lucca Hobson; sister-in-law, Dorothy Hobson. Visitation is at Downing Lahey, 6555 E. Central, Thursday and Friday. Services begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 13, at Grace Presbyterian Church, 5002 E. Douglas. Memorials are with Grace Presbyterian Tutoring Program and Kansas Humane Society.