Bob Klas died peacefully, surrounded by his family at his Tigard home on Wed. May 2, 2018. At 82, he was rewarded for living a good life by a blessed, holy death. He fought lung cancer for a year and a half,
Bob was born May 28, 1936, the only child of Alice [Holden] K1as and Raymond Klas. He was delivered by a midwife, on a poor depression-era farm near Colome, SD. When he was 3, his parents moved to Winner where he grew up a “towny”. Bob’s 35 “farm cousins” were jealous of him because he a1ways had a room to himself whi1e moving often from one small rental to another. Bob was jealous of them because they had many brothers and sisters to have fun with whi1e sharing a room between three or four of them. The “country cousins” had many animals to “play with and ride” across vast open fields. whi1e he had just one dog “Blondie” to love. These fields were the same fields their grandparents homesteaded and on which their parents struggled through the dustbowls and 1ocust hordes. Being “rooted to the land” was a treasured value unknown to city folk. Winner, though tiny by our standards, was the “big town” and was the main trading center of this vast farming region. There Bob attended St. Mary‘s grade school and served as an altar boy before graduating with honors from Winner High in June of 1954. Weeks later, the family moved to Hillsboro, OR where a few relatives had relocated.
When Bob was barely 10, he started working as a shoe shine boy at he Winner Grocery lo help the family make ends meet. A good worker, he was promoted to sweeper, then bagboy, then clerk till eventually becoming a phone—delivery truck driver. In Winner, he made $1.00/hour and tips. Soon after moving to Hillsboro, Bob got a job at Smith‘s Market again as a phone—delivery driver but making $3.00/hour and tips! Bob thought he was rich and gone to heaven! Soon realizing that most customers ordered similar groceries each week, Bob began prepacking the orders well before the phone-in deadline. This way, by serving many more customers, Bob made more tip money while Smith made more profit. Bob continued to work for Smith full time-days then drove downtown nightly to study drafting at Multnomal College and Fine Arts at The Museum Arts School. He started pre Archineclurc at PSU in 1958. Oct. 1959 with the cold war warming up Bob enlisted in the Army. Right after boot camp and job
training, he was sent to Passalaqua, a small administrative base in the heart of Verona, Italy. Italy was a dream assignment for this young architecture student. Immediately, Bob started going off base every chance he got, eager to see the sites and experience the culture. Because of his precise grammar excellent spelling and clean cut mannerisms, Bob was entrusted to type and edit the senior-officer-performance-repots before sending then further up. He was promoted very quickly then chosen to be an honor guard. A few months later, Bob was “invited“ to the Italian Consul’s office. There he was asked if he wanted to “volunteer” to “occasionally just carry a few papers to Venice.“ Venice, just an hour away by train was where the US embassy was located. He was “offered a few extra
weekend leaves at government expense.” A young 22 year old Bob “volunteered in a heartbeat!” On THE day the Berlin wall was started, Bob was flown out of Verona and directly back to Portland, months before he was due. In Aug. 1961, Bob was honorably discharged.
Home again, he reenrolled in PSU and again went to work at Smith‘s Market. Bob married Mary Anne Millington June 8, 1964,
That fall, they moved to Eugene when Bob transferred to U of O. Bob made the Dean’s list and received several scholarships. He graduated in Dec. 1966 earning his Bachelor of Architecture degree,
Moving back to Portland, he began working as a draftsman. Over the next 40 years, Bob specialized in designing commercial retail. Hundred of Safeways, Albertsons, Thriftways and adjoining strip malls throughout OR, WA, ID, NV, and Northern California were designed by EKA. Bob‘s firm did motels, restaurants, banks & some larger regional malls. He redesigned Beaverton mall 3 times. In the 70’s Beaverton used his double-pod-design for 8 schools years. Throughout those 40 years, because of his high standards, integrity and fairness, Bob had many repeat clients and employees who stayed with him for 20 plus years until he finally retired when 70.
About 25 years ago, Bob volunteered his services to remodel Trinity’s original ‘long gym Church’ into the more ‘congregation-friendly-round one’ that served us for two decades. It is fitting that today, Bob’s funeral is being held here in this, ‘Trinity’s new Church’ whose original-concept roots came through Bob years ago. Trinity was Bob’s spiritual home. Here, he taught CCD and led the scouts when his children were young. Later he was a lector, usher, collection-counter, and a 4th degree Knight of Columbus. Serving as Eucharistic minister was what he cherished most. He was Fed here and from here he is Freed to his new life.
The day Bob died, Wed. May 2. 2018, was the most peaceful, deepest, calmest, most Spirit-filled day of his whole life. Having the whole family together always was Bob‘s greatest joy. For us to feel, see and, witness his spirit rising that whole day, to know he was on the way to Heaven was a gift he shared with us.
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