Robert "Bob" Henricksen

Robert "Bob" Henricksen met Marlene, the love of his life, at church event in 1963 and would marry her a few years later, they would remain married the rest of his life. Together they had two sons, a daughter, and 7 grandchildren: Steven and his children Abigail and Carl (with wife Karen); Christina "Tina" Porreca and her Children Brittany, Brian, and Andrew (with husband John); Eric and his children Alexander and Madeline with wife Petra).

Before their engagement he would be drafted into the Army and leave for a month after the ceremony. Bob was proud of his two years of service.

Bob longed to be many things during his 81 years. In high school Bob joined the choir and took music appreciation, wanting to learn the guitar and become a singer in the vein of the Everyly brothers, he would sport a 50 style Elvis duck tailed styled pompadour the rest of his life.

The draft interrupted his plans to enter college to become a pastor. Bob and his twin brother Rich had both been inspired by the evangelical preaching of Billy Graham who had risen to popularity in the 60's. Yet he also loved the punishing action of football, which he would play along side Rich. Bob also loved to drag race with his cousins along County line road on the weekends.Despite the appeal of the bad boy image Bob would abstain from using alcohol, tobacco, or any other substances during his life. Bob was a restless young man and at times in his youth would be temped to walk both the wild side and the straight and narrow. That dichotomy, wanting to be both a preacher spreading the word of the lord he loved, and that of the restless rebel would go on to define the entirety of his life.

After being Honorably Discharged from the service rather than stay and raise his young family his home town of Bensenville IL, in the spring of 1970 Bob would accept a job with International Harvester and move his wife Marlene "Mar", their three year old son Steven, and new born daughter Christina "Tina" to Albuquerque, New Mexico to be near their Army friends.

Bob had loved Westerns growing up in the 1950's, as was the rage at the time. He loved the adventures of Roy Nix, The Lone Ranger, and The Cisco Kid. It was out west that Bob would begin sporting his trademark cowboy boots and hat. In 1973 he would be transferred to what has been described at the time as the "Dusty old Cowtown" of Denver Colorado. When family would drive out to visit Bob would borrow one of the classic International Harvesters Travelalls of the time and drive them all up into the mountains to see the sights and pan for gold.

Bob also longed to be a police officer but asthma, which he picked up duing his time in the army would deny him that goal. Instead he would become a weekend security guard at The First of Denver, what is now the Wells Fargo campus on 16th street in downtown Denver. It is there he would be allowed to be a gunslinger packing his 6 gun on his hip.

Being a different time in the early seventies, slow quiet Sunday evenings would allow the guards to bring their families into the spacious main hall of the building especially on the latter hours of the shifts to visit and eat dinners together. Bob talked his boss into allowing him to bring his son Steven with now and then for his twelve hour shifts on Sundays as he was working two jobs seven days a week seeing little of his young family.

Though he would never be the hero he wanted to be in the army or on a police force, Bob worked heroic hours during his career to provide for his family, Security would be his secondary job the rest of his life and provide him many great lasting friendships over the years.

After 3 years in Denver, Bob's branch of International Harvester would file for Bankruptcy and Bob and Mar would once again cross the vast prairie states along the same route as the pony express and eloquently described by Jack Kerouac in his novel "On the Road". Wanting to be closer to family Bob and Mar would move back closer to each others family settling in Michigan for a few years. Instead of a conestoga wagon, in the mid-1970's, their wagon was a U-Haul and their team of horses, a Chevy station wagon which was hitched and pulled behind.

After a few years in Coldwater and then Lapeer Michigan and with Bob's asthma worsening they would once again load up a U-Haul. They would move another thousand miles south to try the climate and be near Bob's brother Rich and his family in Florida. Sadly the climate didn't improve his health and they missed their extended families in Illinois, With their oldest about to enter high school, after 10 years wandering the wilderness, they decided to return home to Bensenville Illinois.

Bob would work 3 jobs, two of which were security, continue to wear his cowboy boots and continue to try to pass the police endurance tests. Bob would however eventually find the time to become an ordained minister. Though he never actively built a church, he felt he fulfilled his promise to Christ to preach his word and mentor those in need. It was people of his ilk with relentless determination, stubbornness, and mettle that helped build this country.

Bob loved his three children and was proud of the stong families they would build over the last three decades of his life. Asked later in life what he thought of all the moves they made across the United States he said it was a great adventure. Sadly in his last years Dementia would steal the memories he made, asthma would damage his lungs, he would develop COPD which eventually took him.

To the last he was comforted by his loving wife Marlene. He was always a positive, loving, husband, brother and father. When surrounded by family Bob would frequently comment "The gangs all here!".

Bob passed quietly the morning of February 23rd, 2026 after many months unable to sit or stand on his own, or without the ability to comprehend most of what was happening in the outside world. He was deeply loved and shall be missed.

He had worked his whole life to "make straight the way of the lord" as John the Baptist had preached. . As Christ told his apostles in John Chapter 14, he has not truly left us, he has just gone ahead to help prepare many rooms for his family in the lords house and join those who have gone before him on his last, and greatest adventure. A Celebration of his Life shall be held at a later time yet to be determined.