Robert Hoskins Warren, of Madison, Wisconsin, died on Feb. 1, 2023 at age 83.

Bob was born in Bronxville, N.Y., on April 11, 1939 to Henry Chamberlain Warren and Virginia Dale Hoskins. As a kid, he was quite the rover, residing in Savannah, Ga., Evanston, Ill., Mathews, Va., Richmond Va., and Chicago before settling in Wheaton, Ill., with his mother and stepdad James Joice for his junior high and high school years. Growing up, he enjoyed reading science fiction and Popular Mechanics, Peanuts and Pogo, building models and watching Flash Gordon. He had fond memories of his years living at Springhill, his grandparents’ farm in Mathews, where his grandmother Mama Betty taught him first grade, and where, on Put-In Creek and the Chesapeake Bay, his lifelong love of sailing and boats first came about. Bob and his Hoskins cousins spent summers together at Springhill as well, feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs, chasing the lambs, weeding the gardens, pumping water and churning butter, and shooting pool down in the village. There was croquet before dinner, evenings spent telling stories and singing, and Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.

Bob graduated from Wheaton High School in 1957. Good times at Wheaton High included cruising the Tasty-Freeze, Don and Angie’s in Glen Ellyn, the North Side Park pool, light crew for school theater productions, the view from certain water towers, the cherry bomb in the mailbox, blue-dot tail lights, the ’49 Plymouth and the Highwaymen car club formed with his best friends.

After high school, Bob attended Beloit College, where he majored in political science. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and sang and played folk songs on guitar and autoharp. On his first day of classes, he met Sandy Holmes as they were both trying to locate Mr. Brown’s Music History class, which turned out to be held in Mr. Brown’s living room with Mrs. Brown sustaining the students with her freshly baked cookies.

As fate would have it, Bob and Sandy fell in love during their time at Beloit, and after graduation, they married in 1963 and would live the rest of their days together happily and in love.

After college, Bob entered the Air Force and was commissioned a 2nd Lt., serving four years as a Special Agent with the Office of Special Investigations while stationed in Great Falls, Montana, Dayton Ohio, and Battle Creek, Michigan. R&R in those years included camping in Glacier National Park and skiing at Big Sky and Nub’s Nob, often with their cat Peanut tagging along.

After service, Bob and Sandy moved to Madison, Wis., where Bob began his career with Oscar Mayer as a programmer/systems analyst. He worked for Oscar Mayer for 28 years, in Madison and Los Angeles, in various management positions within the information services department, focusing on the writing and support of computer systems for various business applications. His career spanned technology from the punch-card to mainframes, PCs, and distributed processing.

Bob and Sandy lived in Madison for 22 years in the Orchard Ridge neighborhood, where they raised their two sons, Bill and Jamie. Bob and Sandy raced their Flying Scot ‘Cirrus’ in the Lake Monona Sailing Club for over 20 years, racing twice per week during the summers and bringing home a bunch of trophies, with Bob serving the club as a board member and as commodore. He was a member of the Madison PC Users group in the early days of home computers. Bob was a great dad to his sons and was plenty involved in their lives and activities. The kids couldn’t have asked for a better dad and were lucky to have him. He afforded them many opportunities, and gave them the space and freedom to do pretty much whatever they wanted, his one regret being that neither of them grew up to become a Wienermobile driver. Bob coached their soccer teams and was an assistant scout master for their Troop 102, organizing and going on scout camping trips, canoe trips to the Quetico, and backpacking in the Porkies. Family getaways included many road trips out to Mathews, to visit Bob’s parents, camping in Peninsula State Park and ski trips up to the U.P., bringing along Bill and Jamie’s friends, and the classic road trip out west in the station wagon with camper in tow to Yellowstone, Tetons, and Glacier parks.

In 1996, Bob and Sandy retired to Mathews to their home on the water on Stutts Creek off Chesapeake Bay. Mathews was Bob’s paradise on earth, his favorite place to be. An idyllic community of good friends and caring people, beautiful countryside, and the saltwater creeks and the bay where adventures awaited. They spent those halcyon days sailing their Endeavor sailboat ‘Intrigue,’ having fun with friends, immersing themselves in the community, and living the good life. Over the years, they sailed their boat on scores of the Mathews Yacht Club cruises all over the Chesapeake Bay and further afar: to Annapolis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, up the Potomac, down to Norfolk and the James River, through the Dismal Swamp to the Albemarle Sound, to the Eastern Shore and places in between. Overnights spent aboard, some legs of journeys enduring bad weather or dead calm, encountering pods of dolphins, navigating with charts through narrow and shallow channels, low and high tides, but ending up in safe harbor with dozens of friends enjoying camaraderie and sundowners.

In retirement, Bob was involved in many aspects of the Mathews community, serving on the boards of the Mathews County Historical Society and Mathews Yacht Club, volunteering with the Mathews County Democrats, and managing the Kingston Parish Cemetery. He was a gardener, growing tomatoes and peppers from seed, asparagus, cantaloupes, lettuce and beans, and gargantuan zucchinis. He devoted time to his pursuit of genealogy, learning and compiling a trove of history on his Hoskins, Warren, Chamberlain, and Carter ancestors and attending Carter Family reunions. A considerable amount of time was spent fixing and maintaining his fleet of floating objects.

Bob was a lover of music and enjoyed attending the symphony and listening to his record collection: classical, jazz, folk, bluegrass, Beatles, Willie, Harry Belafonte, early Roberta Flack. Particular favorites: Glenn Gould playing Bach, and the allure of wasting away in Margaritaville. He was known to blast Sousa marches, Mozart’s Requiem, and Bach organ music at all hours.

Bob was hard-working, generous, charitable, and loyal. He was good-natured and playful, fun and comical but also serious, industrious, capable, dependable, kind and patient. He valued learning, education, knowledge, and expertise. When a job or cause needed someone, he often volunteered. He was knowledgeable about and could speak intelligently on many a subject. He was principled, valued fairness and decency, and lived accordingly and by the moral compass of right and wrong. Bob was a mechanic, a handyman, and a carpenter and could troubleshoot and fix a heck of a lot. He also had the gift of perfect pitch.

Bob loved Sandy, his soulmate, and was devoted to her. They were partners in life and they took care of each other. He loved his sons and their families, his Hoskins and Warren cousins, his parents and grandparents, and his many dear lifelong friends from Mathews, Madison, Beloit, and Wheaton, with whom he had deep, meaningful friendships. He would tear up when talking about people he loved and felt deeply about. He enjoyed the new friends he met in his final years while living at Capitol Lakes back in Madison. Bob enjoyed so much being with his friends and loved ones, talking, laughing, discussing and solving the problems of the world, chewing the fat and spinning yarns. In summation, he lived a good life with many adventures and he had a lot of fun during his time in this world. Bob’s family and friends loved him and miss him dearly, and we are grateful for the time we had with him.

Bob is survived by Sandy, his beloved wife of almost 60 years; his son, Bill; daughter-in-law Rhonda, and grandson, Morgan; his son, Jamie and son-in-law Howard; his brother-in-law, Bob, and his Hoskins and Warren cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents, Virginia, James, and Henry.

A funeral service will be held at Kingston Parish Christ Church in Mathews, on Saturday, June 3, at 11 a.m.

The family wishes to thank Capitol Lakes Terraces and Health Center and Agrace Hospice for their care of Bob in his final days.

Online condolences may be shared with the family by visiting www.faulknerfuneralhcs.com.