Robert Bernard Tracy (1925-1971): A Life of Remembrance

After being discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps at the close of World War II, Robert Bernard Tracy resumed his civilian life by going back to school to obtain his high school diploma. During this period he wrote his own book of knowledge. This short book of knowledge gives the reader a sense of the wit, cleverness and humor that captured the character of Robert Bernard Tracy. In one page he wrote: "School is another way of teaching the younger generation how to ruin civilization. In time it will succeed." In another page of his book of knowledge he wrote: "High School is a four year intermission between grammar school and unemployment." As a young child to make his mother remember him or what he needed, he would at times sign his name as "BB Bats," which were lollipops that he enjoyed as a child. He would spend most of his childhood years with his siblings being raised by his grandparents in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Robert began working as a service station attendant for his uncle, Edward Buist who owned a gas station in Kalamazoo, and in the spring of 1943 decided to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps two months shy of his 18th birthday at the height of World War II. He was a 50 caliber machine gunner fighting against the Japanese Army in the islands of the Pacific Theater, including Bougainville, Guam and the most terrible of all, Iwo Jima. After his military service, Robert Tracy would have various jobs such as a house painter, a sleeping car conductor with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, a driver for the Peter Wheat Bakery, United Parcel Service, an insurance adjuster, the Hulett Corporation and finally the Liberty Trucking Company. He would marry twice and had seven children with his second wife. After separation with his second wife, Bob lived for a period of time with his mother, Florence Hedlund in Midlothian, Illinois. His life would become short lived due to a series of illnesses and eventual death at the age of 46. This then is a tribute to the life and times of Robert Bernard Tracy.