Hoyle, Robert Henry

Robert Henry Hoyle - age: 83
(December 11, 1929 to October 14, 2013 )
Resident of Ukiah, California

Obituary:
Hoyle was born on December 11, l929, in Boston, Mass., and died on October 14, 2013, in Ukiah, California.
After Bob graduated from high school, he entered Lowell Tech, then Lowell Textile, where he played football and didn’t do much academically. He joined the army after a year and a half and was in Japan when the Korean War broke out. In Korea, he earned a field commission, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star, the third highest U. S. military honor. He was happy to get home in l952. Eventually he was assigned to the West Point Military Academy to teach at their summer camp.
It was here that he met Marian, and they were married shortly thereafter. After resigning from the army and holding some unrewarding jobs, he went back to college, this time as a serious student. He had three children by then and held a night job as a lab tech in a local hospital to help support the family. The G. I. Bill was largely responsible for his being able to continue his schooling. Not enough thanks are given to this program.
After completing his education and graduating in the top of his class, Bob went on to teach for a few years and later earned his Master’s degree at Brown University. The family now included five sons and subsequently moved to California. He was an outstanding math teacher at Albany (Calif.) High for twenty-five years and coached football and wrestling for most of that time as well..
Bob created a highly successful MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) program at the school to encourage and support minority students. He was also responsible for raising thousands of dollars for the school athletic department and was awarded a PTA Life membership for his contributions to school and community.
Bob was selected to participate in a Fullbright Teacher Exchange program, which sent him and Marian plus their three youngest to England for a year. The family also traveled extensively in Europe during this period. The teaching experience was so interesting that he applied again a few years later, and he and Marian went to the Shetland Islands (Scotland) for a year.
After retiring in l990, he and Marian moved to Petrolia where they owned some property. They eventually built a home there and were content to run a little ranch for almost 20 years. Shortly after arriving in the valley, Bob was asked to fill in as a math teacher at the new Mattole Triple
Junction High School. The first week he taught at A. W. county park, using a blackboard he had hung from a tree. Later the school had better accommodations, and the “temporary job” lasted five years. It was one of the most fulfilling teaching experiences of his long career. He was fortunate in having wonderful students everywhere who made him happy to be a teacher.
An avid card player, Bob started a friendly poker group in March of 2001, and it is still going strong. He was a hard worker for the Mattole Grange and helped at all the barbecues. He could also be found at the grange kitchen sink, washing dishes for the pancake breakfasts every month. Bob and Marian worked through Food for People (Eureka) and distributed monthly commodities to low-income people in Petrolia and Honeydew.
Eventually necessity required that they be closer to town, so they packed up and moved to the outskirts of Ferndale, where Bob kept busy, working in his garden and walking his dog, Annie. Last year Bob’s health was in serious decline. He had a form of dementia and was starting to fade away, so the family encouraged Bob and Marian to move closer to them. They moved to Redwood Valley.
Bob was preceded in death by their son, Murray. He leaves his wife, Marian, of 61 years; his sons: David, Peter (wife, Cindy), Mickey; and Max (wife, Sherry)....he was very proud of his boys... and his brothers, Randall (wife, Toby) and Dick (wife, Sandra). His grandchildren are Robert, Steven, Katie, Kaitlin and Emily.
There will be no memorial, as per his request, but friends and family are asked to remember him
with fondness and to be kind to other people and