Robert Draper

1930 - 2019

Robert Elliott Draper
1930-2019
Robert Elliott "Bob" Draper—beloved husband, father, brother, grandfather and servant of the Lord—passed away on the early morning of Sunday, November 24, 2019. He was 89 and, following a succession of medical issues, had spent much of his final two weeks hospitalized and then in hospice, with his two sons John and Robert by his side. To his sons, his doctor and his pastor Alf Halvorson, Bob repeatedly expressed his fervent desire to find eternal peace in Heaven. His decline was rapid and free of pain, and there was joy in his weak voice when he spoke his last words to his sons a few hours before his passing.
Bob was born on April 5, 1930 as the eldest of four children—not in Texas, to his abiding regret, but rather in Cleveland, Ohio, though his parents ferried him to Dallas before he was four. He was a star offensive end for the state champion Highland Park High School football team, attracting some interest from college recruiters. That possibility was short-circuited following a knee injury, and after a brief stint at Southern Methodist University, Bob transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated in 1953. His devotion to the Longhorns extended literally to his final day on earth, when the hospice director turned on Bob's TV so that he could watch the Texas-Baylor game. (He fell into blissful slumber before the game got out of hand.)
After a thankfully uneventful 10-month stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, Bob proceeded to spend the next half-century in a succession of sales-related professions. His honest and completely undisguised love for people, along with his unprepossessing intelligence and steady work ethic, brought him promotions at Ludlow-Saylor (wire cloth), Waukesha Pearce (construction machinery equipment) and Browning Ferris (waste disposal).
But those tours of service paled in comparison to a 65-year commitment that began in 1954, when a Kappa Sigma fraternity brother set Bob up on a date with his wife's beautiful chestnut-haired 20-year old younger sister, Claire Jaworski. He married the love of his life on September 17, 1955. The young couple proceeded to have three boys (the first, David Elliott, would die tragically in a motor vehicle accident at the age of 23), raising them first in Houston's Meyerland neighborhood, then for four years in St. Louis, and finally in the Spring Branch/Memorial neighborhood of West Houston. The latter residence on Apple Tree Rd. became the steadfast anchor for family and holiday celebrations in which Bob unfailingly took a star turn at his patio barbecue pit.
A lover of BBQ and Mexican food, of Texas football and baseball teams, of Italy and the Texas hill country, of mowing grass and telling jokes, Bob Draper was above all else a devoted family man and Christian. Following his retirement from BFI, he and Claire threw themselves into deeper engagement with family, friends and volunteer activities at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church. His love for his parents, wife, sons and extended family was as straightforward, dependable and radiant as sunlight.
Bob Draper leaves his wife Claire Draper in his loving wake, along with his two surviving sons John and Robert Draper—and, respectively, the former's wife, Laura Sandlin Draper and the latter's fiancée, Kirsten Powers; one granddaughter, John and Laura's daughter Delilah Draper; two sisters, Elaine Mikkelson and Joan Melton and their respective husbands, Mallory Mikkelson and Gordon Melton; one sister-in-law, Ruth Draper; and seven nieces and nephews.
Memorial services will be held in the sanctuary of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church on Thursday, December 5 at 10:30am. In lieu of flowers, Bob Draper has requested that donations be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation, to Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church and to the M.D. Anderson Foundation.