Robert Hemings, Jr,. Kailua, Hawaii

Bob Hemings, 81, died Saturday, August 29, 2009 in Kailua, Hawaii. He was born in Rochester NY on February 25, 1928.

Following high school he enlisted in the US Navy and served in the USS MISSOURI, where he witnessed the Japanese surrender in 1945. Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1954, he became a carrier-qualified naval aviator and flight in structor. He resigned from active duty in 1959 after serving in an aircraft carrier. He remained active with the US Naval Reserve until 1988, retiring as a lieutenant commander.

Joining the space program in 1959, he worked for Boeing and General Dynamics in Seattle, New Orleans, and Cape Canaveral. In 1969 he went into federal service and became test director on a classified submarine program for Naval Undersea Systems Command at Cape Canaveral and Andros Island, Bahamas. Moving in 1973, he continued as a shipboard advisor in Hawaii and retired from civil service in 1985.

He leaves his wife of 35 years, Elizabeth Norwood Hemings of Kailua Hawaii; three stepchildren; two children from an earlier marriage, Robert Emerson Hemings of New Smyrna Beach (grandchildren Kelsea and Lindsay) and Rosemary Elizabeth Hemings of Carmel, CA; and two brothers, Michael and Terri, both of CA.

Lieutenant Commander Robert Morrisey Hemings Jr. USNR (Ret.) was buried with Military Honors at Arlington National Cemetery on 5 October. Memorials may be sent to the Naval Institute Foun dation, Annapolis MD.

Sailor, rest your oars.