Robert Doriot Longaker

1948 - 2015

Robert Doriot Longaker was born to John Doriot Longaker and Mary Luzon Sondrup Longaker on January 23, 1948, in Palo Alto, California. He passed away in the evening of August 14, 2015, of causes incident to Parkinson's Disease.
He grew up in Ephraim, Utah, where he loved to hike in the foothills and delighted in catching blue-bellied lizards as a test of his hand speed and reflexes. He hunted jackrabbits as a youth and deer as he got older. Fishing was a great pastime that he enjoyed throughout his life, including peaceful excursions with his wife, Lee, on their boat. Strawberry Reservoir was a favorite.
Bob, as he was known in his youth and throughout much of his life, loved sports--especially basketball. He would practice for hours at a homemade hoop on a dirt court still bumpy from furrows of a previous garden in their backyard. He perfected shots that would later serve him well as a starting forward on the Manti High School team that took State for their region in 1966 under coach Wilber Braithwaite.
Robert was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served an honorable mission to the North Central States.
Bob was a member of a Special Forces unit of the Utah National Guard. His son Bryce later followed him into the military where he experienced war as a medic and later worked with the Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority. Bob attended Snow College and Brigham Young University, to which he remained a loyal fan throughout his life. While at BYU, he married Paula Welch and they were blessed with seven children, three boys and four girls. They later divorced. Further on in life, he married Lee Marie Wagoner, his soul mate. They enjoyed the company of each other immensely and spent countless hours in the mountains and on lakes in their boat.
Bob worked for many years in the airline industry. He was subsequently employed by Federal Express and did the Wyoming run. He experienced both hours of tedium on the long road and hours of harrowing terror on ice-packed lanes in blinding blizzards. There were several unavoidable accidents that he survived, but not without bumps and bruises which created lifelong aches and pains. He retired from FedEx with the hope of a long and pleasant retirement with Lee on the lake. However, Parkinson's disease was a cruel master, denying him the joy-filled years he had worked for and dreamed of as he spent his last years in a care center in Provo, Utah.
Robert is survived by his older sister and brother: Bonnie (Morris) Hansen, and John (Victoria) Longaker, and six of his seven children: Kris Longaker, Robert (Brenda) Longaker, Amy Longaker, Rebecca (Robert) Conder, Allyson Longaker McEuen and Erik Longaker, as well as his wife Lee and her five children: Erik (Kerri) Hinds, Chad (Coni) Hinds, Tara (Tyler) Hamblin, Ryan (Mindy) Hinds and Todd Hinds. He was extremely proud of his many grand and great-grandchildren. He had great pride in his family and loved them all dearly. He is preceded in death by his cherished son, Bryce, who Bob looked forward to seeing again in a glorious reunion that would also include his mother, affectionately known to grandchildren as Nana, and many other loved family members.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 22, 2015, at the Ephraim First Ward Chapel, 450 North 200 West, Ephraim, UT. A viewing will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., followed by a service at 1:00 p.m., followed by a burial service in the Ephraim Cemetery.
Friends are invited to attend and share a memory with his family if they feel so inclined.