Robert McClure Obituary (1925

Robert McClure 94 passed away at Beacon Hill in Lombard on December 4, 2019. Born the only child to Thelma and Orlie Bob McClure on March 18, 1925, Robert succumbed to dementia but not before engaging that thief in a fierce nine-year brawl. Whether you remember him as Dad, Panta, Poppy, Uncle Bob, Bob or Mr. McClure, he lived a purposeful, loving and Christian life passing on many precious gifts to his surviving family and those who knew him. Robert is survived by his three children Robert, David and Cynthia Endsley (Terry +); grandchildren Derek (Allison), James (Erin), Daniel, Melissa, Thomas, Madeline and Shane; great grandchild Brielle; niece Christine Getchell (O'Brien) and sister-in-law Doris O'Brien. He now joins the love of his life with Helen Margaret (O'Brien), his wife for sixty glorious years. As a young boy he lived in many communities in Illinois and the Dakotas while Orlie pursued work in the new growth industry of county highways, building the Great Depression's social network infrastructure. One of his memories of those years was in Dixon Illinois where President Ronald Reagan was a pupil in Orlie's Sunday school class and Ronnie's mother was often Robert's babysitter. But it was in Bloomington Illinois where the small family settled in 1941 during Robert's sophomore year that his many virtues took root. At Bloomington High School he developed socially, excelled academically, played varsity basketball and was elected president of his senior class. And it was in his senior year that Robert (Class President), the Football Team Captain (Bump Elliott) and the Class Valedictorian were selected to enroll in the Marine's Officer Candidates School. Achieving the rank of Marine Captain, Robert was being trained to lead a platoon of Marines as part of a D-Day type invasion of Japan which fortunately never happened. Upon his discharge in 1945, he attended the University of Illinois where he earned a bachelor's degree in Business, a Juris Doctor in Law, became president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and most importantly met Helen. Robert and Helen married on Aug. 26, 1950 and after a brief Korean War reserve duty call up at Camp Pendleton, he and Helen settled into permanent residence in Lombard Illinois. The Lombard years were the best years of his life, growing as a husband, father, businessman and community leader. As a Lombardian, he coached Little League, was president of the Lombard Jaycees and served as member of, and legal counsel to, the Lombard Plan Commission where he was instrumental in the annexation of the land where Yorktown Mall now resides. As a businessman he worked at Iowa Gas and Electric and Plastic Contacts Lens before finding his stride in the moving industry, working in the Chicago corporate offices of Greyhound Van Lines, Bekins Van Lines and Allied Van Lines. Robert transformed the moving industry at Allied Van Lines by creating an insurance agency subsidiary that continued household goods-in-transit insurance into permanent homeowners insurance at the customer's new home. Robert and Helen retired to St. Petersburg where they made many new friends and lived until Helen's passing. Robert McClure, is a Great American Story and is loved, inspired and missed by the lives he touched and who are now creating their own Great American Stories. Dad, your presence can never be replaced, but today we rejoice that you are in a better place with Mom. A memorial service, with military honors, will be held on January 11, 2019 at 10 a.m. at the Hager Memorial Home in Dwight.