Robert (“Bob”) Arthur Schoonover died December 13 of cardiac arrest at Newport Hospital having been diagnosed with bladder cancer November 18. Bob was born January 2, 1949 at Aiea Medical Center, Territory of Hawaii. His father Donald Leroy Schoonover, originally from Los Angeles, California, was flying the Berlin Airlift at the time of his birth. Bob’s mother Hazel Marie Farris of Eastport, Maine, served as a WAVE (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) until her marriage to then Lieutenant Commander Donald Schoonover.
After Bob’s dad retired from the Navy, the family moved to Chico, California where Bob attended high school and ran cross-country and track, setting several records. He then attended Occidental College on an athletic scholarship where he continued to excel in those sports. Some of his competitive running highlights were placing 5th as an All-American cross-country runner in the 1968 national championships, setting the Occidental record in the 3-mile