Dr. Robert Morris "Bob" Ball

Robert Morris Ball obituary Dr. Robert Morris Ball passed away peacefully on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, at the age of 75, surrounded by love and strength. Bob fought a brave battle against the complications of pancreatic cancer.
Bob was born in Houston in 1949 to beloved parents Ben, Sr., and Gene Ball in Houston, growing up primarily in Dallas with his two brothers Benjamin Thomas, II, and John Michael. Some of his fondest early memories are with his Uncle Walt Morris, Jr. (Pat Morris) and Aunt Reba Brown. He graduated in the Thomas Jefferson High School class of 1967 and was the proud recipient of the Firestone National Scholarship. He attended Georgia Tech, graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1971, with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
Bob received a full-ride scholarship to Duke University School of Medicine as a Charles A. Strickland Scholar and completed his residency and internship there. After a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiology at Stanford University, he became an Assistant Professor of Cardiology at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine for seven years. Bob then practiced interventional cardiology in Harlingen for several years before joining Cardiology Associates in Corpus Christi in 1989 where he found his life's calling until his retirement in 2017.
Bob lived a life full of family, travel, good friends, and good wine and was grateful for his bicycling friends, his travel friends, his bridge friends, his many patients over more than 30 years of practice, and his cherished colleagues and physician friends, especially Dr. Mark Strauss and Dr. Steve Oshman. Bob's final years were like the rest, filled with lifelong learning and adventure, whether it was noticing the windows in a Paris train station, listening to a history lecture and adding another presidential biography to his library, turning a trick in a bridge hand (and trying not to boast about it), or listening to the rain fall on the back porch. He will be dearly missed by those who loved him, especially his loving wife of ten years Gretchen Arnold.
Bob is survived by his wife Gretchen; son David Ball and his wife Cara Nakamura, and their children Mira and Calder Ball; with Mary MullerBall daughter Allison E. Moore and son Major Michael Ball; stepson John Wood and his wife Tiffany Wood, and their children Parker, Pearson, and Easton Wood, and Riley Reneau.
Bob's wish was not to have a funeral. In lieu of a funeral service or flowers, those who wish to honor Bob can make a contribution to the Historical Forum at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi: (361) 825-2639.