Robert Buchholz

1938 - 2011

Robert H. Buchholz
March 13, 1938 ? Jan. 24, 2011
Resident of San Jose
Robert Buchholz, 72, died peacefully after a sudden worsening of ongoing heart and lung issues. He was born in San Francisco to Henry and Helen Buchholz and raised in Mill Valley. While at the University of Washington he met the love of his life Louise "Sam" Fox. They were married for over 50 years, living in upstate New York, Tennessee and California. They traveled extensively, especially in England. Attending concerts wherever he went, Bob loved classical music. A passionate photographer and digital photo editor, he specialized in large images of flowers.
Bob studied Chemical Engineering at UW and joined GE immediately afterward. He retired from GE after a career of 40 years. Early in his career he worked in Schenectady on the design of submarine reactors. He came to San Jose in 1975 as GE's manager of the Mark I Containment Owners' Group program and became manager of licensing for GE plants then under construction. In 1978 he was honored with a Centennial Award, one of only 100 presented throughout all of GE. Bob left GE briefly to work for Nutech, then returned to GE's Advanced Reactors program. For several years he was the project administrator for the program to develop GE's advanced reactors , and later was the Six Sigma program leader for all of Advanced Reactors. The many friends he made throughout his career were very dear to him.
Bob is survived by his loving wife Sam, his children Carol and Ken, daughter-in-law Teresa and sister Mira.
A celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at Darling Fischer Campbell Memorial Chapel, 231 E. Campbell Avenue, Campbell, Ca. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the University of Washington engineering scholarship fund.