Robert Hancock Sturdy, Sr.

STURDY, Robert Hancock, Sr., 94, of Cutchogue, Long Island, NY, and for many years of Cohasset, MA, passed away of natural causes on January 27, 2025, at his family home on Nassau Point in Cutchogue. He was married for 62 years to his much beloved wife, Joyce Lorraine (Luckett) Sturdy, who passed away in 2015. He was the son of Col. William Werner Sturdy (U.S. Army) of Chartley, MA, and Dorothy Hancock of New York, NY.

Bob lived a long and industrious life. He was born in New York City on May 16, 1930, and attended the progressive Scarborough School in Briarcliff Manor, NY, St. Paul's School in Garden City, NY, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, MA, on a scholarship from Grumman Aircraft. While at M.I.T., Bob recognized a shifting world and convinced Grumman President Leroy Grumman to allow him to switch his scholarship from mechanical to electrical engineering. A lifelong builder and innovator, Bob spent his entire career in the burgeoning high-tech electronics business. In 1953, Bob went to work with Bernie Gordon, a fellow M.I.T. man who had just founded EPSCO, Inc., an early electronic component manufacturer. Bob left EPSCO in 1956, started and sold off R.H. Sturdy Co., and in 1957 joined a promising start-up, C&K Components, Inc. (now part of Littelfuse), then a manufacturer of magnetic core memory units. After five years growing C&K, he moved on to Dynamics Research Corporation (now part of SAIC), an electronics engineering company for the U.S. defense sector. Although in management for most of his career, Bob was an idea generator at heart and was awarded a U.S. Patent in the field of analog to digital signal conversion.

In 1968, Bernie Gordon - then President of Gordon Engineering - reconnected with Bob and together they founded Analogic Corporation with Bob as Analogic's first employee. Eventually Gordon Engineering was folded into Analogic, which became a leading engineering and manufacturing pioneer in the medical imaging field, including computed tomography (CT), digital mammography (DM) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). After taking the company public and following many years of rapid, quarter-over-quarter growth, Bob stepped down as SVP of Operations and a member of the Board of Directors in 1980 and retired at age 50. In 1984, Bob came out of retirement to help resurrect a struggling electronics manufacturer and ultimately reconstituted it as family-run Hancock Electronics, a manufacturer of train brake controllers, power converters and other components for mass transit systems. Bob retired again for the second and last time in 1997.

Beyond work, Bob lived a full life. Bob spent most of his childhood summers at his grandparent's waterfront Long Island house cruising around in a wooden dinghy he built with his father at age seven and learning to sail under the instruction of Capt. George Monsell, a three-time America's Cup winner. Bob met Joyce on a double date in college while she was attending Colby-Sawyer Junior College and they married shortly after he returned from a brief stint in the U.S. Army. They were both only children with little extended family, so together they had six children and built their own family. Originally settling in Brookline, MA, they split time between Brookline, Long Island and a 1960 Egg Harbor sportfisherman, Antigua. Bob served as a representative to the Brookline town meeting and a member of the Brookline School Committee. In 1973, Joyce and Bob relocated their family to Cohasset, MA. There they switched to sailing with the second Antigua, a CSY 44 sailboat, and joined the Cohasset Yacht Club. In Cohasset, Bob served on the Planning Board for 25 years balancing development with the town's unique character.

Bob was a personality to be reckoned with. Brilliant, driven and strong-willed with a mischievous sense of humor and a generous spirit, he could be a challenge for some to deal with, although Joyce teamed up well with him. Together, they were a devoted couple who relished spending time with their large family, boating in Boston Harbor, Cohasset, Long Island and Nantucket, and working together in their gardens and kitchens and on endless projects. They were do-it-yourselfers before DIY was a thing and hard work was invariably accompanied by laughter. Together, they embraced all life had to offer and lived the American dream. They had a great run.

Bob is survived by five of his children and their spouses: Robert Hancock Sturdy, Jr. (Mary) of Tiverton, RI; David Coles Sturdy (Charlotte) of Scituate, MA; Jean Sturdy Snyder (John) of Topsfield, MA; James Luckett Sturdy (Gwendolyn) of Williamsburg, VA; and Charles Hancock Sturdy (Anastasia) of Cohasset, MA. He was predeceased by his daughter Susan Sturdy of Cohasset, MA in 2013. He is also survived by sixteen grandchildren (Katherine, Emily, Lauren, Elizabeth, Ian, Mark, William, Thomas, Carina, Robert III, Diana, Benjamin, Samuel, Tegan, Anneliese and Alexander) and 10 great-grandchildren, whose calls and visits brought him great joy in his final years. He was predeceased by his granddaughter Linnea.

A celebration of life service will be held at the Cutchogue Presbyterian Church in Cutchogue, NY on Saturday, February 8th at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please donate to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.