Bobby Kent Nipp

1939 - 2025

Bobby Kent Nipp

July 27, 1939 - April 23, 2025

Bob Nipp passed away at The Sharon at Southpark in Charlotte on April 23, 2025. He was a good man and a good father. Through studiousness and intellect, he rose from modest roots in Union City to earn a chemE degree at the University of Tennessee. He prized that accomplishment and his faithful slide rule. Bob's blending of smarts and southern affability served him well during his decades of travels to virtually every corner of North Carolina and the surrounding states to sell industrial chemicals and provide chemistry advice on behalf of Rohm & Haas, his sole employer from college co-op through retirement. Benjamin Moore would have been awed by Bob's knowledge of paint, which his adult children frequently accessed. Most endearingly, despite being away from his Jamestown home for weeks at a time for work, Bob helped rear three children with his late wife of 55 years, Gloria - somehow finding a way to get back home for birthdays, coach baseball, attend gymnastics meets and band concerts, and help with homework using his CPU-like math skills. A questionable singing voice never stopped him from bellowing out Stephen Foster's "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" on interminable family drives to visit relatives in Union City. He belly laughed at his favorite early-80s sitcoms, cheered the Vols when he could bear watching, immersed himself in spy novels and British television, made astonishingly quick work of formidable crosswords, and relished daily breakfast with friends at Adams Farm McDonald's.

Bob is survived by his son, Jeff Nipp (Brecken); daughter, Alison Small (Jeff); and son, John Nipp (Tracy). Bob and Glo loved every moment spent with and spent talking about their grandchildren, Gabriella, Emma, Alec, Wyatt, Jackson, Molly, and Olivia.

A private service will be held in Jamestown. In lieu of flowers, online donations to College Fund for Tickle Engineering are welcome.