Alexander Montgomery "Bob" Muckle

1934 - 2023

Alexander Montgomery "Bob" Muckle was born on April 3rd, 1934 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, the only child of Alexander Montgomery and Mabel Muckle. His father was a professional hockey player on the road much of the time so Bob and his mother lived with her parents in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. He was raised in Winnipeg and attended the historic Earl Grey School. When Bob was 14 the family moved to Compton, California. He attended Compton High School and Compton Junior College. He then transferred to the University of California at Berkeley where he received a Bachelors's Degree in Engineering and a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Control Systems. When he arrived at Cal, he boarded at the Sherman Hall Co-op where he met Patricia Sue Berge. She was a sophomore at Cal and was the work shift manager and thus his boss. He continued to visit her for the next few years and on May 23, 1959 they were married in Mill Valley California- a marriage that lasted 63 years. They moved to Seattle where Bob worked at Boeing. They returned to the Bay Area where he obtained a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and worked for Ford Philco. The family then moved to Minneapolis where Bob worked for Honeywell for a year. He was offered a job at Ball Brother's Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado and the family moved to Boulder where he spent the rest of his life. As an only child Bob really wanted to have his own family. He had two sons, Robert (Melanie) Muckle and Andrew (Michele) Muckle. He drove his boys to hockey games and often coached their teams. He taught them to swim, and attended their swim meets. He came to every grade school, junior high and high school choir concert or musical. He did the same for his five grandchildren - Jessie and Alexandra Muckle; Josh, Claire and Joseph Muckle - attending dance competitions and baseball games. He loved his family. Bob worked as an aerospace engineer for his whole career. He initially worked on the Orbiting Solar Observatory satellites that Ball was building at the time. He worked on military communication satellites and many other projects. He finished his career at NOAA overseeing quality control at the contractors who were building weather satellites. Bob was a serious swimmer. He swam in races in the Red River of the North when growing up in Winnipeg. When he moved to California he played on championship water polo teams. He worked for Los Angeles County as a life guard on Manhattan Beach (the original Baywatch). He swam in Masters swimming in Boulder for many years. Bob loved to sing. He sang in a production of "The Mikado" while at Cal. He sang in the St. Paul's United Methodist Choir for over 50 years and in the last 25 years with his son Bob. He played a shepherd in the production of "Amahl and the Night Visitors" put on at St. Pauls. He would lead the family in singing on the long road trips the family took every summer. He sang many songs he learned from his parents, and his sons taught them to their kids carrying on this tradition. A funeral service will be held at 11 AM on Saturday January 21 at St Paul's United Methodist Church, 4215 Grinell Ave in Boulder.