Services for Robert Allen Heacock, 91, of Lawrence, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, October 12, at First Baptist Church, 1330 Kasold, in Lawrence, Kansas. A private interment for family will take place at another time.
Mr. Heacock died on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
He was born November 21, 1932 in Altamont, Kansas, to parents Alvie Daniel Heacock and Erma Florine Brown Heacock. He graduated from Winfield High School in 1950, and attended Southwestern College in Winfield briefly prior to enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1953.
He married Darlene Louise Cullumber on July 17, 1952, in Winfield, Kansas. She preceded him in death on January 15, 2009. He married Rev. Sandra Marie Stanford Walton on December 27, 2009. She survives of the home.
Other survivors include two sons, Rev. Douglas Heacock (Carolyn), Lawrence, KS, and Bradley Heacock (Patty), Lee’s Summit, MO; two daughters, Teresa Gottstein (Steve), Lawrence, and Anne Munsterman (Dave), Lawrence; two stepsons, Timothy Walton, Aptos, CA, and Tom Walton (Lori), Lawrence; and a stepdaughter, Angie Danner (Ralph), Offenburg, Germany; a brother, John Heacock (Ruth), Anderson, TX, and a sister, Vivian Howell (James), Liberty, MO; twenty-one grandchildren; eleven great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
While serving in the U.S. Army, Mr. Heacock was assigned to the Army Corp of Engineers and was stationed at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. He worked there under Dr. Werner von Braun, on the development of the Redstone rocket, and was honorably discharged in 1955, having attained the rank of Corporal. Mr. Heacock received an Associates Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Capital Radio Engineering Institute, Washington, D.C., and also attended the University of Cincinnati. He worked in engineering groups at Boeing, Cessna, General Electric, RCA Corporation, and DuPont. In 1966 he returned to Kansas to work on a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas, graduating in 1969. During his time as a KU student he also taught in the electrical engineering labs. After graduation, he worked for FMC Corporation, Lawrence, for 29 years. He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and served in many positions in the Kansas City section and as a representative on regional and national committees. He was a registered professional engineer in Kansas. He received many safety awards and other awards from ASME. In retirement he taught for six years in the KU School of Engineering as a visiting lecturer.
He was a long-time member of First Baptist Church, Lawrence, and served in many leadership roles there over the years, including singing bass in the choir and teaching Sunday School classes. He loved our family trips to the Blythe Spirit cabin in Colorado. In retirement, he wrote children’s stories and history books, repaired furniture, and enjoyed swimming, fishing, golf, and travel. In 2008 he became a licensed private pilot, and enjoyed flying for several years. Other hobbies included woodworking, sewing and tatting, model railroading, gardening, acting, amateur radio, hiking and sailing.
Mr. Heacock was a member of the Boy Scouts, Senior Scouts, and Cosmopolitan International.
The family will receive visitors at a reception following the service at the church on October 12.
Online condolences made at rumsey-yost.com
