Robert Lynn Whittlesey

Robert Lynn Whittlesey, PE 1004, died February 11, 2018. He was a consulting mechanical and electrical engineer, a land developer, and an investor. Bob was born in Boone, Iowa on July 23, 1920, the second of three sons of Lynn M. Whittlesey and Mayme F. Severs Whittlesey. His father was an engineer on the C & NW Railroad and his mother was a teacher. Bob was in the Honor Society at Boone High School. His school interests were industrial arts and music, playing cello and string bass. He graduated with a BSME degree from Iowa State College, Ames Iowa, in 1942. Upon graduation he was hired by GE as a designer in the power plant and turbine department in Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1944 he served as an Ensign in the US Navy and was appointed to an elite sevenman group of engineers. He was a high explosives specialist in shaped charges and delayed fuses. His inventions were used by the Seals in the Normandy Invasion. After discharge from the Navy in May, 1945 he became Chief Applications Engineer of Lennox in Marshalltown, Iowa. In 1949 Bob moved to Denver as a Lennox dealer and founded his consulting engineering firm Whittlesey and Associates. In 1952 he earned a B.A.A.S. degree from the University of Denver in Architecture and City Planning. As his real estate investments grew, he founded the Colorado Apartment Association in 1968 and served as its president and a national officer. In 1960 he closed Whittlesey and Associates to devote all his time to his real estate holdings, including the design and building of rental units and housing. Bob occasionally taught as an adjunct professor at the Universities of Colorado and Denver. In 1950 he married Bonnie Basinger, a high-school teacher and United Airlines stewardess, with whom he had four children. Bob and Bonnie were active lifelong churchgoers in the Methodist Church where they had met in the choir. They continued singing in church choirs, the Denver Classic Chorale, and other performing choruses. During their lives, they supported many charities. With the help of Denver Hospice, Bob cared for Bonnie during the last two years of her life until she passed peacefully in her sleep at home on July 1, 2011. Bob is survived by his four children Dave (Sue), of Hotchkiss, Colorado; Brad (Joan) of Englewood, Colorado; Susan, (Michael Young) of Denver, Colorado; and Cynthia of Washington, D.C. He is survived by grandchildren Seth (Kelsey) and Kelly Whittlesey, Jim (Rachel) Whittlesey and Megan Hanlon (Tyler), Anne and Kate Young. He is survived by great grandchildren Logan and Brynna Whittlesey. He is survived by his brother Don Whittlesey of Manhattan, Kansas. Bob wanted to be remembered as a teacher of adult students in industry and business. A memorial service will be held on Sunday, February 25 at 1 pm in the chapel of Bethany Lutheran Church at 4500 E. Hampden Ave. in Denver. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bob's memory to Denver Hospice. 501 S. Cherry St Suite 700 Denver, CO 80246