Robert “Bob” Schoen of Essex Junction, Vt., passed away on August
27, 2023, at the age of 92, due to complications from pneumonia. Bob
was born in Manhattan to Agnes and William Schoen and spent his
childhood riding his bicycle through the streets of New York City,
playing baseball and playing with his dog, Jack.
Bob
attended many New York Yankees games with his father in the 1930s and
once discovered that Babe Ruth was in the stands. Young Bob lined up
for Babe Ruth’s autograph, but a large man stepped in front of him,
cutting him off. Babe Ruth reached around that man to take the
program from Bob, making a point of signing his first. Bob always
treasured that memory and the lesson in integrity.
At
age 16 he joined the U.S. Army National Guard, where he became
trained as a medic because he “wasn’t afraid of blood.” He also
received “Expert” for his shooting marksmanship. Bob’s advanced
education began at City College in New York for his undergraduate
degree. He took his first geology class at City, earning a grade of
C-, which was the highest grade in the class. To his way of thinking,
“The best grade in the class deserved an A,” but more
importantly, “Geology made sense.”
Bob
moved to the University of Wyoming in Laramie for his postgraduate
work. It was here that he met his wife of 66 years, Jean Rogers
Schoen. Drafted into the U.S. Army at the end of the Korean War, Bob
spent the next two years in Okinawa, Japan. Once stateside, he and
Jean wed and moved to a trailer in the Southwest “because you
can see the geology in all of the exposed rock.” He studied the
nation’s uranium mines in Moab, Utah. Using the veterans’ benefit
of the G.I. Bill, Bob and Jean moved back east to Boston, Mass., to
further his education. They made a quick stop in Wisconsin for the
birth of their first child. Bob received his PhD in geology from
Harvard University.
Packing
up the family car once again, Bob moved his growing young family,
which now included another daughter and a kitten, to California,
where he began his career as a geologist in the Water Resources
Division for the U.S. Geological Survey. Soon another daughter and
son joined the family, necessitating the purchase of his first
home in Cupertino, Calif. Many camping trips to national and state
parks throughout the American West allowed Bob to share his love of
the natural world with his four children. He welcomed the challenge
of anything new and taught himself, his wife and children how to sail
a small boat. Soon he bought a 26-footer, in which he took the family
on long sailing trips on San Francisco Bay and down the Sacramento
Delta.
In
1968 Bob was asked to present a paper at a worldwide geological
symposium held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Taking his wife on this
summer trip, he was one of the few speakers able to give his speech
before Soviet tanks rolled into town in an invasion of that country
that lasted 23 years. It took several days to get the Americans and
other foreigners bused safely out of the country, and it was a
surreal experience for Bob and Jean to walk the streets with the
Soviets’ loaded guns pointed at them at all times.
In
1972, with a new green station wagon, Bob yet again moved his family
of six and the same cat, along with his big red sailboat trailing
behind, across the country to northern Virginia. Here he continued
his career with the USGS, bicycling to work each day, until his
retirement. During those early years as a retiree, Bob reignited his
passion for biking with family, taking his wife and children on many
trails throughout the region, including a five-day Vermont bike
tour. He relished the pleasure of vegetable gardening and produced so
much that he learned to can. He continued to sail his boat in the
Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay and along the Intracoastal Waterway.
After the beloved family pet of 17 years passed away, Bob welcomed
other cats, including strays from the barn, into his lap.
With
his children grown and the area becoming too congested, Bob and Jean
left northern Virginia and moved to Middleton, Wisc., to enjoy that
beautiful state and do some traveling and research the family
genealogy, until their final move back east, to be near two of their
children in Vermont.
Nothing
made Bob happier than the discovery of a special rock specimen or
fossil to add to his collection and to share this fascination with
his grand- and great-grandchildren. He enjoyed classical music and
attending operas. He wrote technical papers, nonfiction and fiction;
dabbled in drawing; acted in community theater; loved photography and
developed his own pictures in a darkroom; taught community college
courses in geology; volunteered as PTA president for his children’s
elementary school; and sang baritone; and his sneezes could cause a
tremor within the earth. Despite being frugal, Bob encouraged his
children to expand their minds by providing a piano and lessons,
bicycles to stay healthy, and later, in Virginia, providing them the
opportunity to learn responsibility with the family horse, Buck. Bob
was ahead of his time in insisting that the TV programs his children
watched included good female role models.
Bob
refused to let the digital age pass him by, using a Kindle in his
last years because the typeface could be enlarged easily. His
favorite saying was to give everything “the old college try.”
Known as Mr. Fixit, he had numerous how-to manuals lining his
hand-built library shelves, mixed in with rock specimens, countless
novels and nonfiction, periodicals, and maps and charts. He had an
amazing memory and loved to tell stories. As a lifelong learner and a
voracious reader, his favorite was Mark Twain: “Do the right
thing. It will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.”
In
2022, at the age of 91, Bob undertook a new learning adventure,
beginning the daily routine of peritoneal dialysis. The mechanics of
peritoneal dialysis fascinated him, always the scientist, and he took
great pride in his mastery of the self-care regimen. The flexibility
and control provided by this dialysis option was a game changer for
him, and he was so grateful to Dr. Onuibo and special nurse Sandra of
the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine Division of
Nephrology Home Dialysis Program, for their encouragement, support
and respect. As dad said, “They let me be the boss.” He is one of
the oldest patients to have attempted this, and he was successful for
more than a year.
Our
father and grandfather was larger-than-life, and we will miss his
words of wisdom. A special dark chocolate cake with chocolate icing
and chocolate ice cream, raw seafood, a rare prime rib steak, and an
extra-dry martini to wash it all down with will always remind us of
our dad.
Robert
was preceded in death by his parents and his older sister, Helen
Henning.
Surviving
Robert to cherish his memory are his wife, Jean; four children:
daughters Wendy Cowne (Stephen), Paula VanDeventer (William), and
Roxana Schoen (Don Atriedes), and son Peter Schoen (Leslie Pelch);
seven grandchildren: Aric Cowne, Justin Cowne, Alexander
Kolankiewicz, Peter VanDeventer, Gretchen VanDeventer, Tristan
VanDeventer and Willa Pelschoen; six great-grandchildren; and
numerous nieces-in-law and nephews-in-law.
Per
his final wishes, a private family celebration will be held at a
later date to inter his ashes at the Viroqua Cemetery, Viroqua,
Wisc., under a “nice piece of gneiss.”
In
lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in his memory to your
local NPR radio station or local PBS television station, or your
local Humane Society.
Arrangements
are in the care of the Cremation Society of Chittenden County, a
division of the Ready Home. To send online condolences, please
visit cremationsocietycc.com.
This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2023.