Robert Bertram Lamb

May 28, 1924 July 24, 2013

Robert Bertram Bob Lamb was born on May 28, 1924 in Ventura, California. A third generation Californian, Bobs grandmother was born in San Francisco in the 1860s and mother, Hazel Helena Hund, was born in Ventura in the 1890s. Bobs father, also Robert Bertram Lamb, came from England as a baby ultimately settling in Santa Barbara in the 1890s and passing away shortly after marrying Hazel five months before Bobs birth.

Bob was raised in Ventura by his mother and her sisters, his grandmother and aunt May Henning, were beloved long-time teachers in the Ventura college and school systems. Bob attended grammar school at the Academy of St. Catherine and graduated from Ventura High School in 1942. His freshman year at college at Santa Clara University was interrupted when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in the spring of 1943. He became a B-17 navigator and served in numerous missions over Italy and Germany earning the Air Medal and other commendations.

After coming home in 1946 he returned to Santa Clara to finish his freshman year; then went to Ventura College for a year, UCLA for a year and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Agricultural Economics. After graduation he went to work for Production Credit Association in Ventura and later opened his own office as a real estate appraiser specializing in eminent domain. He appraised some of Ventura Countys largest ranches including the Broome ranch, the Janss ranch and Rancho Canada Larga.

In 1950 he married Susana Camarillo Burket, granddaughter of Don Adolfo Camarillo and daughter of Harold Burket, architect of Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church in Ventura and numerous other local buildings, and raised three sons in Ventura and Ojai, before Susana passed away in 1989.

Besides his appraisal practice, Bob became active in numerous organizations including being President of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association, the Navy League and the Ojai Civic Association as well as President of the Board of the Ventura Community College District. He was a founding Director, with his long-time friend and business partner of Martin V. Smith, of the Commercial & Farmers Bank of Oxnard. He was a member of Rancheros Visitadores, Rancheros Adolfo, the Tuesday Afternoon Rest & Aspiration Society, the Ventura County Sheriffs Posse, the California Avocado Society and Las Posas Country Club.

After living in Ojai for 28 years, he moved to the Santa Rosa Valley in Camarillo in 1988 where he grew avocados and lemons. In 1991 he met Carol Elaine Rauschenplat, an American living outside Malaga, Spain, at the World Avocado Conference in Guatemala. They were married in 1992 in Coral Gables, Florida and divided their time living in the province of Malaga and Camarillo until moving from Spain to reside full time at Rancho Santa Rosa Vista in Camarillo in 2004. Both Bob and Carol have been active in and supporters of the Ventura County Museum.

He is survived by his wife, Carol; his sons, Robert Bertram Lamb III, his wife Linda of Camarillo, David Adolfo Lamb, his wife Amy of Pasadena and John Burket Lamb, his wife Carol of Somis; seven grandchildren, Robert B. Lamb IV of Camarillo, Maureen Isabel Cottingham, her husband Adam of Sonoma, Katherine Ann Mays, her husband Matt, and Susana Elizabeth Lamb of Camarillo, Stephen William Lamb of Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Jennifer Burket Lamb and Anna Elizabeth Lamb of Pasadena; two great-grandchildren, Bodie Robert Mays and Molly Geneva Mays of Camarillo; three step-children, Suzanne Swietnicki, her husband John of Vancouver, Washington, Robert Rauschenplat, his wife Cindy of Stuttgart, Germany and Jane Rauschenplat DeNight, her husband Shawn of Miami, Florida; and five step-grandchildren Sara Sheppard of Havre, Montana, Erin Levy and Gavin Swietnicki of Bozeman, Montana and William and Julia DeNight of Miami, Florida.

Funeral Mass will be Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 10 am at the St. Mary Magdalen Chapel, Camarillo and burial at Conejo Mountain Memorial Park.

In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to the Ventura County Museum or Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association.