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John Robert (Bob) Maas

Posted 2014-09-30 by Sharla
The Daily Courier, Prescott, Arizona,
Tuesday, September 30, 2014

John Robert Maas

Bob Maas was born Oct. 14, 1921, to Rose and Frederick Maas, on Long Island. He had an older brother and sister, Bill and Mildred, with whom he had a teasing and loving relationship. After high school, he went to work for Seaboard Surety, a corporate insurance company, in Manhattan.

In 1943, he joined the Army Air Corp, was shipped to Australia, the Philippines and New Guinea, where he was an aerial engineer on flights, and a crew chief for C-47 transport planes. He was responsible for the assembly and maintenance of the planes, and could still remember the firing order of all the cylinders 65 years later!

After the war, he went back to work at Seaboard, and completed an Associate's Degree in Accounting at night school. In 1950, he married Jean Helen Kreiling, (to whom he was married until her death in 2000), and had a daughter, Joanne, in 1953. He was active in the Congregational Church, serving as a Deacon and as Principal of the Sunday School. He was in a bowling league where he occasionally broke 200, and loved planting and caring for huge Azalea bushes, gladiolas and a small vegetable garden.

Bob was recruited by St. Paul Corporate Insurance Company in the 1960s to be their Comptroller and Corporate Treasurer, and worked there until his retirement in 1983, after commuting two hours each day for 37 years to support his family.

He loved retirement, and used his time to travel, to go out on the boat he received as his retirement gift, to volunteer at the hospital and to ride his bicycle around the neighborhood collecting aluminum cans for recycling and donating the proceeds to charities! In 1991, after 70 years of living on Long Island, he and Jean moved to Prescott to be near Joanne who had moved there in 1975.

They loved their home in Hidden Valley, and the wonderful neighbors they met there, and Bob became a Lion, a C.O.P., volunteered at the men's shelter, at the commodities giveaway and as a Deacon at the Presbyterian Church. They enjoyed trips to Hawaii, the Panama Canal and China, before Jean's health deteriorated. He cared for her at home during the last two years of her life, when she was largely bedridden.

In 2001, he married Eleanor Pollock and moved to her home in Hidden Valley. Together they volunteered at the hospital, at the Community Cupboard, as Lion and Lioness, and at the Methodist Church. They enjoyed trips cruising the Danube, to French Polynesia, and with Joanne and her husband Dan, to ride the rails in Switzerland, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico. Bob and Eleanor also enjoyed setting up an extensive H.O. Railroad set in their home, and playing nightly cutthroat cribbage, doing crossword puzzles and jigsaw puzzles and the wonderful gift of laughter.

In 2013, Bob and Eleanor moved to Granite Gate Senior Living, where they enjoyed the good company, activities and meals provided there. Although confined to a wheelchair for the last year and a half, Eleanor and the staff at Granite Gate took great care of him, and Bob continued to enjoy life.

He leaves wife Eleanor Maas; daughter Joanne (Dan) Fitz; stepdaughter Barbara (David) Daily; step-grandsons Jeff (Keegan) Daily, Matt Daily and Chris Daily; stepdaughter Janet (Jeff) Roberts; step-grandsons Steven Roberts and David Roberts; nieces Nancy (Joe) Dvorak, and Judy (John) Piet; nephews Art (Betsy) Sulzer and Jon (Pam) Morris.

He died on Sept. 25, 2014, after a short time in the hospital, after a good breakfast and without pain, just three weeks short of his 93rd birthday. Although we can't complain that he didn't live a long and wonderful life, his family and friends will miss him dearly.

A Celebration of Bob's life will be at 10 a.m. on Oct. 4, 2014, at the United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Church or Prescott Noon Lions appreciated.

Information provided by survivors.




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