Robert Gerald Nettles

1938 - 2025

Robert Gerald Nettles
10/24/1938 - 11/18/2025
Robert Gerald Nettles passed away peacefully on November 18, 2025. Born in Baton Rouge, LA on October 24, 1938 to Robert and Geraldine Nettles, Robert Gerald was the oldest of their four children. Robert loved cookies, ice cream, science, and quality family dinners paired with a well-executed Cosmopolitan. His daily creed was "there is always room for dessert". Robert was a dedicated engineer, continually learning; always the first one in and last one to leave his job.
Robert was tenacious and goal-oriented. When faced with difficulties, he analyzed and worked towards solving every challenge. Robert overcame a diagnosis that he would never walk again and spent almost 60 years proving Army doctors wrong walking off the airplane to his fiancé, Helen, in 1963. Robert and Helen married on April Fool's Day; the hilarity of the date not lost to them. Together they raised three children, one much smarter than the rest.
Robert is preceded in death by his wife Helen and son William. He is survived by his daughter Karen, son-in-law Keith, son Steve and his partner Chuck, granddaughter Lauren and husband Jake, grandson Seth and wife Randi, a bonus granddaughter Leslie, three great-grandchildren, Teddy, Charlotte, and Bryce as well as his sister Cynthia and husband Rip, his brother Edwin, and numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews.
The family wishes to thank Christa and Linda for their kindness and caregiving over the last four years.
A private burial was held on November 22. A Celebration of Life will be held on December 6, 2025 at Bradshaw Carter Funeral Home in Houston, Texas from 11 am - 2 pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation in his memory to The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research or the Houston Food Bank.