Bob Poole
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Maurice Robert "Bob" Poole
Quality Assurance, Floor Inspections, and Supervision, 1953-1986
When he was 13 years old, he started working at the Western Hills golf course near Santa Monica and Wilshire. He rode his bicycle there from his dad's place in Venice to West LA. He gave his mom his money. "She was hard working, raising three kids, doing the best she could. His mother did not use a cookbook, she "couldn't afford a cookbook." Her specialty item was chocolate pudding. When I asked if he ate better or worse now than when he was a child, he said, "I eat better now because there was not anything to eat when I was a child."
Bob was mentioned in the Inspection Findings report of the May 1957 issue of The AeROHRcrafter: Poole (from Sandy Acres) figured he did not need a power mower and sold his. When delivering same, the pesky thing fell out of his truck and spread itself all over the street..."
According to the February 3, 1969 issue of Rohr News, Bob was promoted to Supervisor of Quality Assurance-SPD at Rohr Riverside.
Bob’s son, David, also was employed at Rohr at one time. He worked in Space Products Engineering for four months during 1978, in between semesters at college.
In 1980, he organized the Riverside chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association and was its first President. He started over 30 chapters in California, Nevada, and Arizona.
About the same time he worked at the golf course he was also making skates out of apple crates. Bob attended Venice High School in Venice, California and served in the Army during World War II. His most memorable meal on a train was the "C-Rations from LA to Texas on a troop train in the Army. When they came out with K-Rations they weren't too bad. Either that or go hungry." The beef hash C-Rations in the Army "was pretty bad, a dog wouldn't eat it."
He began his aircraft career in 1936, when he was 16 years old. He worked at Northrup in El Segundo, California and Douglas in Tulsa. In the 1940’s he was a Carpenter for MGM Studios in Hollywood, building movie sets. He was later employed as the Airport Manager for Hawthorne, California. He remembered the days when LAX was just cornfields.
Jeannie and Bob Poole. Rohr News Mid-November 1982.
He married his first wife Jean in 1940 in Yuma, Arizona by the Justice of the Peace. In 1943, their daughter Nancy was born in Santa Monica, California.
On April 6th, 1947, he married his second wife Jean Nelson in Yuma, Arizona by the Justice of the Peace. According to Bob, they had dated for three months and then broke up. When he came home from the Army on furlough they started dating again. In 1958, their son David was born.
Bob and Jean are mentioned in the August 1956 issue of The AeROHRcrafter. "Jean Poole and her husband, Bob, enjoy horseback riding on Sundays. They trek down to Nuevo for a ride in the hills... (p. 37).
The November 1956 issue of The AeROHRcrafter announced Bob's October 1956 promotion from "an Inspector General, to Leadman in Inspection, at the Riverside plant" (page 25).
In 1983, while working in Department 735, he was honored for his 30 years of service at Rohr. In 1986, after 36 years of service at Rohr, Bob and his wife Jean retired to the Hemet/San Jacinto area. Rohr begged him to come back to teach the new employees because they could not do what Bob did!
One example of Bob's leadership skill was on the plug gauges that were made "to check the hole diameter for precision fasteners for aircraft installation. The ends are either green (go) or red (no go). Your uncle, Bob Poole, figured out that some holes could be out of tolerance even though the (no go) gauge would not go in the hole. So he had the gauges changed to the bladed configuration to check the maximum width across the hole. If the hole is rejected the hole would be reamed to the next bigger size" (Jerry Van Hulle, June 24, 2022).
Jean passed away in 1999. In 1999, Bob was married again to a wonderful lady named Faye Dixon. They were members of the Hemet Valley Christian Church, and in 2004, he became an Elder at the church.
Bob passed away at his home in Hemet, California on October 17, 2006 at the age of 87.
References:
The AeROHRcrafter, August 1956, p. 37.
The Press Enterprise. obituary.
Written by Sue Poole.
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Last updated: 01-10-2024