THOMAS, ROBERT E.,
passed away on December
2, 2013.
Bob attended Valley
High School where he
played basketball, baseball,
and also was on the
boxing and wrestling
teams. He won both the
Outstanding Basketball
Player Senior Award in
1950-1951 and the Flying
Dutchman Award in
1951. He attend Western Kentucky
State College and Murray State Teachers
College, and graduated from the
University of Louisville with a degree
in Business Administration. From 1954-1957,
Bob served in the United States Army and was
stationed in Panama.
After serving his country, he was employed
by Louisville Gas & Electric in the purchasing
department. Bob left LG&E for an opportunity
at the Kentucky Association of Electrical
Cooperatives where he was the Director of
Purchasing and Transportation, a position
from which he retired in 1997. Continuing his
love of sports, Bob played corporate softball.
He was recognized as the Most Valuable Player
during the Herbold Memorial Softball
Tournament in 1960. The following year, he
and his teammates won the Slow Pitch Softball
Industrial Championship in Toledo. They
also won in Pittsburgh in 1962, Providence in
1963, Detroit in 1964, McAdenville in 1966,
Jones Beach in 1967 and 1970, and Stratford
in 1969. They won the Louisville Invitational
in 1970 and the Bluegrass Invitational in 1964.
After achieving success in softball, Bob enjoyed
similar success with golf. He won First
Place in the IBM Golf Tournament in 1967.
He won the Midland Trail Golf Club Championship-
Second Flight, in 1970 and 1971. In
1981, we won First Place in the United Utilities
Supply Annual Golf event and he was
runner up in the Gaddie Cup- Flight Tournament.
In 1993, he won First Place at the ECHL
golf scramble. Bob achieved 2, holes in one,
and played the Augusta National Golf Course
with a final score of 81, to the envy of many
fellow golfers. Bob also met Arnold Palmer
and was thrilled to have shaken his hand. In
1970, he was commissioned as a Kentucky
Colonel by Governor Louie Nunn. Bob was
offered a position at Brown Wood Preserving
by his long time friend, Lowell Stanley, in
1999.
He thoroughly enjoyed traveling to Illinois to
see his business friends and clients. He often
said that his friends at the electrical cooperatives
kept him young. In addition to his love
for sports, Bob had a passion for the outdoors,
nature, and traveling. He enjoyed keeping his
lawn manicured, maintaining his bird feeders,
hiking through the North Carolina mountains,
and sitting on the beach in Seabrook Island,
South Carolina. Bob loved to dance and people
gathered to watch he and his wife on the
dance floor.
He was a loving and caring husband to his
wife, Connie, a wonderful father to his
daughters, and loved his grandchildren immensely.
Bob was a loyal friend and confidant,
never met a stranger, and made many friends
through the years in both business and social
circles. He remained close to his childhood
friends, Bud Bunch, Charles Ploetner, John
Hunt, and Les Loyless, whom he played golf
with weekly. Bob was a joy to be with, and he
loved to joke and tease his friends and loved
ones. His smile brightened a room and his
laugh was so jovial that others often laughed
in hearing it. He had a tender heart, helped
many people to find employment, build their
businesses, and was eager to lend a helping
hand.
Bob is survived by his loving wife, his fivedaughters,
Valerie Mayer (Norman), Alicia
Martin (Eddie), Leslie Seaton (Mike), Dana
Crenshaw Dupriest (David), and Meredith
Renfro; his grandchildren, Jonathan and Elizabeth
Martin, Chandler Crenshaw, Madison and
Macy Dupriest, and Zac Seaton; his sister,
Norma Van Meter; and brother, Ronald Thomas
(Mary).
A celebration of life service will be held on
December 8, 2013, at 2 p.m. at First Presbyterian
Church, 222 Walnut St. Jeffersonville, IN.
In lieu of flowers, donations in may be made
to St. Jude's Children's Hospital or Wounded
Warriors.
On line condolence www.owenfuneralhome.com