Robert Plummer

Robert John Plummer, 63, died July 22, 2010, at the VA Hospital in Anchorage.

A graveside service will be at 3 p.m. Thursday at Fort Richardson National Cemetery, with a gathering of friends and family afterward at the Crossroads Lounge, 1402 Gambell St.

Bob was born Oct. 31, 1946, in Lincoln, Neb., to William and Helen Plummer. He was the second of four children. The family moved to Anchorage in 1952.

Bob graduated from West Anchorage High School in 1965 and joined the Navy. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam on riverboats in 1966-1967. He received the Bronze Star.

Bob worked as a heavy-equipment operator in Shemya and throughout Alaska. He owned the first waterbed store in Alaska, Sweet Dreams Waterbeds, and the first hippie shop in Anchorage in the '60s, Good Vibes.

He loved to sail, and bought his first sailboat in 1971. He visited many islands and countries, especially Panama, where he met his wife. He also lived for 10 years in Fiji, where he had a home and many friends. But he was always an Alaskan.

Bob loved his 1930 Ford hotrod, "Flame," and Robert Service poems, which he enjoyed reciting. And he never forgot his friends who loved him no matter what, and whom he never failed to entertain.

Bob was known for his "inner twinkle," quick wit and sharp memory, which he had to the end. His family said, "The pirate caught the tide."

Bob was preceded in death by his wife, Rose, after a sailing accident in the Galapagos Islands in 1980; and by his parents.

He is survived by his brothers, Timothy Plummer of Anchorage and William Plummer of Seattle; sister, Patrice Plummer of Bakersfield, Calif.; and many cousins in Alaska and the Western states.

Arrangements are with Janssen's Evergreen Memorial Chapel.