Robert W. “Bob” Sparkes

Monday, December 18, 2017 3:22 pm

Robert W. “Bob” Sparkes, formerly of Fairport, N.Y., died Dec. 15, 2017, at the Barthell Eastern Star Home in Decorah. He was 94. Funeral Services are at 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 28, at Congregational United Church of Christ in Decorah, with Pastor Laura Arnold officiating. Burial is in White Chapel Memory Gardens in DeWitt, N.Y.

Bob was born May 2, 1923, to the late William and Ivy (Welstead) Sparkes. He spent much of his childhood in Ilion, N.Y. There he became an admirer of General Nicholas Herkimer, a Revolutionary War hero for whom the surrounding county was named. Later the family moved to Syracuse, N.Y., where Bob graduated from Central High School. In 1942 he enlisted in the army and became a cryptographic technician in the Army Signal Corps stationed in Calcutta, India. After the war he entered Syracuse University and earned a degree in industrial engineering. He married Martha Nissen June 10, 1948, and together they reared three children.
While in college, and briefly afterward, Bob worked for the Carrier Corporation assembling and testing air conditioning equipment. He then joined the Stromberg-Carlson Company where he worked for 17 years before leaving as manager of industrial engineering. Over the next several years, he progressed through managerial and executive positions with different companies until joining the Raytheon Corporation. There he spent the final 12, and for him the most satisfying, years of his professional life as director of manufacturing projects. In a personal retrospective on his career, Bob noted that, of all the employers for which he worked, only Raytheon survives and, even there, the units in which he worked are gone. He wryly noted, too, that he was not to blame for their demise.
Throughout his life, Bob was actively involved in church, often as a choir member, a deacon, a trustee, an adult Sunday school teacher, or in another leadership capacity. He was also active in the communities in which he lived, holding memberships and offices in professional societies, in Rotary clubs and chambers of commerce, in civic organizations, and in Boy Scouting. An amateur genealogist and family historian, he traced his family tree back to its roots in England and, in a final project, wrote a 200-plus page autobiography to leave to his family and friends.

From his youth, Bob took to heart the directive to “brighten the corner where you are.” Those who knew him will especially remember him for doing exactly that. He strove constantly to live up to his personal credo, which he ascribed to a sermon by the late Rev. Arthur Lacey, then pastor of the First Baptist Church of East Rochester, N.Y.: When given two choices or more, sinning occurs if one chooses the lesser in the presence of the greater.

Survivors include his brother Donald (Martha) of Syracuse, N.Y.; his son Phillip (Karen) of Fort Thomas, Ky.; his son Steven (Ann) of Wayne, Pa.; his daughter Terry (Darrell Henning) of Decorah; his grandchildren Katie Sparkes (John Hinkle) of Miami, Fla., Wesley Sparkes (Melinda Alvey) of Castle Rock, Colo., and Carrie Sparkes (Brian Swartz) of Cambridge, Mass., and several nieces and nephews.

Bob was preceded in death by Martha, his wife of 57 years, March 26, 2005; and his sister Myrtle Gravelle.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the Barthell Eastern Star Home in Decorah, or the Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y.
Fjelstul Funeral Home in Decorah is serving the family.

Online condolences may be made at fjelstul.com.