Robert B Taylor Michael

October 15, 1926-June 4, 2016

   Robert (Bob) Bartley Taylor was born in Pendleton Oregon, in 1926.  Attending school and helping on the family’s Eastern Oregon wheat ranch occupied his formative years and he graduated from Griswold High School in 1944. 

   After a year’s service in the U.S. Army, he was off to Wheaton College, in Illinois, graduating in 1949 with a degree in Anthropology, he promptly married his college sweetheart, Floris May Bringedahl, of Detroit, Michigan.  From June 10 that year, until Bob passed in June of 2016, he and Floris spent 66 years meeting life’s adventures and challenges in close harmony.

   Wheaton College engaged Bob in a teaching position there while he worked on his master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology.  That done, and with their first two children in tow, he moved to Eugene, Oregon, and then Albuquerque N.M., settling briefly as he taught classes, while engaging in research and study for his doctorate. 

   In 1953, the then Dr. Robert Taylor launched the academic journal, Practical Anthropology, which explored the relationships within and among the cultures around us, and how individuals perceive and interact with them.  Ultimately, Bob’s Practical Anthropology was incorporated into a larger publication by Fuller Seminary.

   Among Bob’s published works were Cultural Ways,  Cultural Pathways, a college textbook, Introduction to Antrhopology, and Indians of Middle America;  implementing those in his innovative  self-paced courses he designed during his years as Professor of Anthropology at Kansas State University.  

   It was during his tenure at Kansas State when he spent three research sabbaticals in Mexico.  In the mid 1950’s, he drove to Southern Mexico and back—twice--with Floris, 5-year-old Mark, and 4-year-old Linnea, settling the family for over a year in a small Zapotec village, Teotitlan de Valle, Oaxaca.  In 1973, with Mark and Linnea bundled off to college, Bob, Floris, and young daughter, Gwen, spent his third sabbatical in Mexico City, where he enhanced his expertise as an authority on Middle America.

   Upon Bob’s retirement from Kansas State University in 1990, he and Floris sold their Manhattan, Kansas home and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico—leaving those hard winters behind! 

   During his twenty-two years in Las Cruces, Bob enjoyed with Floris a love for and within their community and church, attending First Presbyterian where Bob wrote an informative, entertaining publication on missions for several years.  Another of many contributions he made there was the development of a columbarium.  It is there, in Las Cruces, that the disposition of Bob and Floris’ ashes will reside.

   Bob was a man of strong Christian faith and commitment, incorporating that faith into all aspects of his life, always praying for and serving people he befriended, counseled with, and loved.  His interest in people was keen, as evidenced by his friendship with people of many faiths and cultures, and his choice of an anthropology major.  Enhancing his natural empathy, he was ever willing to examine his own beliefs. 

    Throughout his life, Bob was a talented and accomplished woodworker, electronics engineer, and a model railroad enthusiast.  Some of his products included a flat-bottomed boat, a tornado shelter (humerously adorned with large polka-dots), state-of-the-art hi-fi and stereo equipment/cabinets, and furniture.  A model train track circled near the ceiling in his office, and he eventually became his model railroad club’s chief engineer.  

    Ongoing healthcare issues prompted Bob and Floris to make the move to Aurora, Colorado, in November, 2012 to be closer to daughter, Gwen Jorgensen, her husband, Dave, and several of their children.  There, they were blessed by Gwen’s diligent care, and were able to reside together throughout  their years of declining health.  Most recently, they both lived at Belleview Heights,  where Bob passed away on June 4, 2015, from declining health and an accompanying dementia. For the final week of his life, he was surrounded by Floris, his three children, and grandson, Matthew Jorgensen.

   He is leaves behind his sister, Marilyn Valentine, of Baltimore, Maryland, his son, Mark Lewis Taylor (Anne Joh), of Chicago, Illinois; and daughters, Linnea Taylor, (Michael Johnston), of Ventura California; and Gwen Jorgensen (Dave Jorgensen), of Aurora, CO.  Bob Taylor has also enriched this world through his 10 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren. 

   In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Dementia Society of America, PO Box 600, Doylestown, P 18901, or online at www.DementiaSociety.org/donate

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