Bob Underwood is seen in the kitchen. Submitted photo

FARMINGTON — Robert “Bob” William Underwood passed away at 82 years old on Sunday, Dec. 8, after battling dementia.

Underwood was a man who led many lives. He was an athlete, a surgical technician, a mason, a seasoned bagpiper, a history buff, a cowboy enthusiast, and much much more.

Underwood’s wife and daughter both recounted memories over the phone with The Franklin Journal.

According to his daughter, Lisa Bird, this is not the first time that Bob has had his obituary published. When he was in his late teens or early 20s, Bob was a part of a pretty bad car accident in Naples. The local newspaper mistakenly ran a notice of his death.

His wife, Charlotte, said that Bob did not have an easy childhood. Living with his grandparents for much of that time, Bob worked hard to live his life to the fullest, she said.

He was a skilled athlete, devoting much of his time to sports in high school. Bob played soccer, baseball, basketball, football, and he was a great swimmer and diver. In fact, Charlotte and Bob first met at a high school sports game. He went to Lancaster, New Hampshire, from Bridgton, Maine, to compete.

“I looked at him,” Charlotte said. “I saw his beautiful brown eyes, his great big smile, and we ended up talking with each other for about an hour.”

Charlotte had a boyfriend at the time, and Bob ended up outperforming him, winning a pair of cleats for his speed. Charlotte’s boyfriend was forced to hand over the cleats. Bob told him that he was going to get his girl next.

“I loved him from first sight,” Charlotte said. “I loved him the minute I saw him and I told my sister, who was three years younger. I pointed him out as he walked down the street and I said, ‘I’m going to marry that guy someday.’ And she said, ‘Charlotte you are so stupid, and how could you possibly think that? You hardly even know who he is!'”

A photo of a young Bob Underwood. Submitted photo

Soon after that, Charlotte’s boyfriend told her that they were going on a double date at the movie theater. When they got there, she realized Bob was on the other half of the date. He had recently transferred to her school. At one point, Charlotte went up to the snack bar and Bob was there. He had a box of popcorn and he had made the popcorn into a necklace.

“And when I was standing there, he put it around my neck. And he said, ‘I’ve been looking for you every single day since I got to this school,’ and I said, ‘When I found out you were here, I’ve been looking for you every single day, too.'”

Charlotte said that on her and Bob’s 50th anniversary, they returned to the same theater, sat in the same seats, and the manager showed a movie just for the two of them. Bob even made a necklace for her out of popcorn again.

When Charlotte was 17 and Bob was 20, they eloped and went to Florida. Bob had given up his soccer scholarship to marry Charlotte.

“Good days and bad days,” said Charlotte, “sad days and happy days, we’ve always made it through them. And we’ve always had, I think, a great love for each other and even if there were bad days, he could make me smile all the time.”

Bob was equally confident about finding a job. When he worked at Pineland Hospital in New Gloucester, Charlotte worked at Maine Medical Center. While attending school to become a history teacher, Bob wanted to work at the same hospital as his wife, so he went to HR to apply. When he was told there were no openings, he said that he was sure with a hospital so big, there would be an opening soon. He then sat there and by the end of the day, they offered him a job in laundry. They soon decided to teach him how to become a surgical technician and he eventually became the head OR [Operating Room] technician.

Bob was one of 24 accepted applicants to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth medical program. There were 2,400 applicants.

“He loved his patients,” Charlotte said. “He loved his job. He loved the people that he encountered and worked with, and it has been shown to us that they loved him because we have had over 400 people make comments about him or reach out to us since he passed.”

“We had no idea, I think,” Bird said, “about a lot of the ways that he impacted the community. We knew he did, but it was amazing to see the extent. People were writing things about how ‘He saved my life’ or ‘I was afraid of doctors and going to the hospital until I met him.'”

“We would be out at Irving’s truck stop for dinner,” Bird said. “And patients would just come up during dinner and say: ‘Hey Doc, can you look at this real quick?’ and he would take care of them right there in the restaurant.” She also shared a memory of her friends showing up to their house to get their ears pierced because piercing guns were only available to doctors at the time.

Charlotte said that Bob had once asked her to get a lot of one dollar bills whenever she would get change back after a purchase. She thought maybe it was for coffee, but she later found out that Bob had been giving it away to patients who needed it to begin their medication.

Bob Underwood is seen playing the bagpipes. Submitted photo

Bob served the community in other ways as well. He was an avid bagpipe player and often played at local events, over 100 parades. He taught the instrument to his grandson, Aiden, along with many others.

He loved history as well, often taking road trips with his family and sharing historical facts. Bob was one class away from a teaching degree in history. He and Charlotte became Civil War reenactors as well.

After his retirement, Bob took on part time work at Wiles Remembrance Center. They approached him with the job offer and he thought about it.

“He said, ‘I’m going to do it because I’m going to work part-time and as long as my children don’t have something, or the grandchildren, I will be available to them and then I will feel like I have continued the circle of life with a lot of my patients.’ And he felt that would be useful to the patients as well as to himself,” said Charlotte.

Bob enjoyed sitting on the bench outside of Java Joe’s coffee shop and talking to anyone who was willing to listen. He did this until he no longer could. Charlotte said that eventually, he began to wander off and get lost. She said that sometimes his granddaughter would find him near the University of Maine at Farmington and walk him back home, telling him that “she was out to take a walk with him because she really loved him.”

Charlotte said that Bob faced a very challenging year and a half at the end of his life. On one occasion, Bob had spent some time at MaineHealth Franklin Hospital after he had fallen in the road and gone unconscious.

Charlotte shared that one day when she arrived to visit, she found Bob in the nurse’s station in a hospital gown, holding a chart and a pen.

“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘I’m working. This is my work day.’ And he said, ‘These people are doing a good job,’ and in front of him was a bowl of popcorn and a glass of soda. They had put a little desk for him there. And I have to say, they were wonderful.”

From there, Bob was moved to the dementia care unit at d’Youville Pavilion at St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston. Charlotte said that they had investigated six different memory care centers and that one seemed to be the best fit.

“They took wonderful, wonderful care of him, just absolutely wonderful care of him,” Charlotte said.

Bob was still seen trying to take care of others even after he was placed in memory care. If he saw someone napping, snoring, or in distress, Bob would tell Charlotte that they needed to do something.

“If he would see somebody troubled there, he would say, ‘Charlotte you need to go get a new car because we have to do something,’ and I’d say, ‘No, I don’t need a new car,’ and he’d say, ‘We do. We need to take that person right there to the ER, or the hospital because they need some care.'”

Charlotte said that the family decorated his hospital room for Christmas and spent a lot of time with him in his last days.

“During the last few days, I never left him and he just held my hand tight, our family was held in his other hand and we would talk with him and talk with him. And every now and then, his beautiful brown eyes, he’d look at me and wink at me and he used to do that to me a lot. And it was always a smile, a little smile,  just to make sure that he winked at me and I said, ‘Oh, I love looking at your beautiful brown eyes.'”

Bob passed away on Dec. 8, surrounded by his loved ones.

“We just loved him dearly and we are missing him terribly,” Charlotte said.

Bob Underwood is greatly missed in the community for all that he did and for who he was.

A celebration of life will be held for Bob Underwood on Sunday, Jan. 12, from 1-4 p.m. at the Harland M. Harnden Masonic Hall at 70 Bryant Rd. in Wilton.