Rob, David Leatherbury, and I were neighborhood
buddies who started running around together in junior
high school. Rob attended Tarleton State for 3 semesters,
but dropped out for lack of interest in higher education.
He ran a commercial printing press for 3 or 4 years. He
and Beverly Hines (PHS '66) got married in 1968.
Rob wearied of the drudgery of shift work
while working at General Dynamics. He and I became involved
with retrievers soon after I graduated from vet school
at A&M in 1969. We had hunted ducks and geese together
and decided we needed a dog(s), then we became interested
in retriever competition. Rob was a professional retriever
trainer in Burleson, Texas for 30 years.
He became ill while in Colorado in May
2002. He returned home with breathing difficulties, where
he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had very intense
radiation therapy in an attempt to shrink his tumor to
operable size, but he died suddenly in September.
I miss him a great deal, he always had
a sly grin and a funny story to tell. His wife and my
lifelong friend Beverly still operates Driftwood Kennel
in Burleson.
Ed Aycock
