Robert Renwick Bottimore Jr. ’51

Bob was born March 16, 1928, in Tazewell, Va., and died of complications from dementia and diabetes May 23, 2005, in Florence, Ala.

He came to us from Fork Union Military Academy and was a politics major. A member of Campus Club, he roomed with Brad Currey, Stan Hoffburger, Steve Seidel, and Ed Simonsen.

After graduation, he spent more than nine years in the Navy, becoming an alumnus of the Rickover Nuclear Power Program. After leaving the Navy, he worked for NASA as a nuclear engineer, and then worked with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission until he retired in 1983. He consulted for several years after that in Maryland and Alabama.

Bob married Wilma Madden Boggs in 1954. After retirement, they relocated to Florence, where he was active in the music and international students' programs at the University of North Alabama. He contributed scholarships to UNA and formed the Bottimore Outstanding Academic Achievement Award to recognize teaching in physics, foreign languages, and the arts. A longtime member of the UNA president's cabinet, he received an honorary doctorate from the university.

Wilma died in 2002. Bob is survived by their children, Ann Miller, John, and David; and their grandchildren, Elly and Drew.

The Class of 1951