Robert Tuthill Bly Jr., known as Rob to most, and Robbie to a few in his youth, died at the age of 74 due to heart failure at his home in Fresno, California, on April 8, 2021.

He was born to Robert Tuthill Bly and Coral “Betsy” Elizabeth Ericson on March 5, 1947, in Washington, D.C. It was the closest hospital to their home in Charlestown, West Virginia. He has one younger sister, Clare Elizabeth Bly. The family made the big move west when Rob was about 8 years old. A road trip he would always remember as it includes stops like the Grand Canyon. Their young family settled in Riverside, California. Throughout his school years reading and books played an important role; and he had multiple library jobs at the Riverside City Library, and even worked in their book mobile. Throughout his life books would always be his favorite escape.

He graduated from Ramona High School, in Riverside, with honors, in 1965. There he was actively involved in the political activities committee, and was a staff member on the school newspaper The Echo, as well as their poetry editor. He also lettered in water polo. He was accepted into a dual program with Claremont Men’s College and Stanford University, where he received a dual program degree in Engineering Management in 1972. Simultaneously, he was a cadet in the ROTC local Bd. 136, in Riverside, from 1968-1971. He was Army Reserve Ready but his severe color blindness would limit his options. Moving north the dual program would take him to Stanford University. During the program he took part in Operation Deep Freeze, in Antarctica, in 1970, where he was an upper atmosphere field engineer, in the Magnetospheric lab. It was the experience of a lifetime, and was cut short due to an unexplained illness that temporarily left him blind, and resulted in him being medevac’d out early. He had originally intended to gain his PhD, but life would have other plans; and it was not until 1978 that he would obtain his masters in Electrical Engineering. He also obtained RA in Radio Science, and spent most of his time in the Radio Science Lab and the Radio Club. He continued with post-degree courses in Radio-Interferometry and super conductivity.    

While working through both programs he worked for General Dynamics, in Pomona; everything from a quality control engineer, reliability test technician, laboratory electronic technician, and a lead blueprint machine operator. After General Dynamics, he went on to work for SRI International, formerly the Stanford Research Institute, in 1971. There he was a research engineer in the electromagnetic sciences laboratory for more than five and a half years. He also worked as a research assistant in the Ionospheric Dynamics Lab. As an electro-magnetic compatibility specialist his specialty was electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) research. 

While working on a dual department project at SRI Rob met his future wife, Trudi Kathleen Tuban, in 1973. The two married nine months later on October 13, 1973, at the home and garden of Trudi’s mother and step-father, Ruby and Lee Tull, in Portola Valley, California. In marrying Trudi, he also gained two young step-sons, Todd age 7, and Matthew age 20 months. They moved into Trudi’s home in downtown Mountain View.

Perhaps his favorite and most public project was his contribution to the Apollo–Soyuz Mission. With more than 3 years in preparation, SRI was one of the partners working with NASA. The Mission was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as a United States Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Union Soyuz capsule. The project, and its handshake in space, was a symbol of détente between the two superpowers during the Cold War. Outside of the public eye a NASA leer jet flew in tight circles around the launch and held that position as long as possible until it passed into the upper atmosphere. The goal was to attract any possible lightning strikes and to absorb them. In the back of the chase plane, surrounded by technical equipment, and sitting on top of a crate, Rob monitored the lightning strikes hitting the leer jet. A single strike to the module and missile could have led to a failure of the mission, and had in fact led to failure of earlier test launches.    

Over the next few years, he juggled working at SRI and working towards his graduate degrees at Stanford. In 1978, he took his nearly completed PhD research and turned it in to gain his master’s degree, and left SRI to join ESL, where he continued his EMP research. His work often took him all over the country and his young family rarely knew where he was, although they always knew who to call to get a message to him in the event of an emergency.

By the spring of 1979, Rob’s father had already been struggled with Parkinson’s for a number of years. A generation older than Betsy, he was fighting to stay with her; it heavily impacted his speech and ability to communicate. When Betsy was diagnosed with secondary spinal cancer, the diagnosis was not good and they all knew her time would be limited. Bob, Rob’s father, saw the end coming and remarked “he would only be in the way.” He passed within a month, and died on December 20, 1979.  After his death in Riverside, Betsy came north to live with Rob and Trudi, in Los Altos.

1980 would prove another big year of change for their small family. Rob and Trudi welcomed their first daughter, Julia Cluxton Bly in 1980. It was an event he nearly missed because of his work. By the time Trudi was home from the hospital Rob had also accepted a new job with her grandfather’s companies, Tuban Industrial Products Company (TIPCO) and Automotive Industrial Distributors (AID), as General Manager. They both had to learn a new industry and way of working after years of working in the research sector.

Rob’s grandparents were special figures in his life, but especially his grandfather, Eric Ericson, Sr., and his grandmother Coral Ericson. He took their passing quite hard. All of this while they were continuing to care for Betsy or Gram Bitsy at home. She spent her time teaching Julie to stand and walk with the aid of her hospital bed and walker in the family room. Much to the chagrin of Trudi would did not need her 9-month-old already on the go. But the cancer was relentless and Betsy finally succumbed on January 19, 1981.

All of the kids continued to grow and participate in their own activities. As the boys were growing older Todd was the first to leave home. Shortly after Todd graduated high school, in October, Trudi worried that Rob would miss the birth of their second daughter Laura Hollingsworth Bly; as he was again away on business, but managed to make it back in the nick of time. Not long after, Matt’s injury and the subsequent months of rehabilitation, were a focus for the whole family.  But with hard times there were also happy moments such as the addition of Matt’s oversized Newfoundland dog Merlin, that barreled through the house either: stepping on, jumping over, running through, biting the ankles, or digging holes any chance he got.   

During his years as General Manager (1980-2002) he was perhaps most proud of helping expand the family businesses into new branches beyond Mountain View, and across California, including: Sacramento, Fresno, and later Fullerton.  He was an annual attendee at the Tulare Farm Show from 1981 to 2018.

In 1994, Rob, Trudi, and their business friends Harlan and Sandy Spain, founded a company of their own, Powertech Engines, Inc. The company would focus on generators of all shapes, sizes, and uses. In addition, they would take on franchise lines focused on industrial engines as well; including: Ford Power Products, Isuzu, Lamborghini, and Iveco.

In February of 2000, Rob and Trudi separated, and would finalize their divorce in 2005. In 2008, Rob purchased a second home in Fresno, California, so he could be closer to the main Powertech branch. He fell in love with the neighborhood mainly because of the grove of Redwood trees throughout the complex. For many years he split his time driving back and forth between Los Altos and Fresno.

Whenever he traveled, he tried to dig up a little more genealogical records, and kept correspondence with distant cousins across the country. He often joked he had a few drawers worth of data to share, and that has proved true. His mind was able to hold family trees back to the mid-1400s on some lines, and he had fun and sometimes scandalous stories to share along the way.

After more than a decade of painful delay Rob finally had a full hip replacement. Most of his neighbors in both Los Altos and Fresno remember him as the man out slowly walking the block with a bent bamboo cane a bit before dusk. He was always ready to greet the dogs and kids along the way, and check in with neighbors. It was also his favorite time to call Julie and chat on her commute home. Unfortunately, after the surgery he had complications and missed out on much of the intended rehabilitation. The result was a straight frozen hip that caused him great pain and did not allow him to sit or walk comfortably. Further medical setbacks would plague him and he stopped his evening walks and became a bit of a hermit. Though he still regularly spoke with his Powertech crew and others by phone.

He was a member of the: American Radio Relay League; the Order of DeMolay, Arlington Chapter, in Riverside; a Mensa Member; a lifetime member of the California Scholarship Federation; and IEEE. He was passionate about protecting wildlife and annually supported causes such as Sierra Club; and Save the Redwoods. He also supported his universities, both Claremont McKenna, and Stanford; as well as Planned Parenthood; and he was a lifetime member of the NRA. 

He was laid to rest in the Bly family plot in the Union Cemetery, in Leesburg, Virginia, alongside his parents, and uncle and aunt.