I knew Bob for over twenty years, first as a fellow audiophile, later as a friend and owner of TG Audio. For many years, we made a point of weekly listening sessions either preceded or followed by a trip to Bob's current "favorite" restaurant, most recently a small neighborhood Italian bistro named Napoli. During that period, he introduced me to a wide range of music that I would otherwise have missed, most what I would term acoustic or folk, Misty River, John Renbourne, Bert Jansch etc. Bob's tastes were fairly eclectic, though I don't think that he listened to much classical music. Bob truly loved music and it was unusual for the sound system ever to be turned off. In later years, the sound system became a tool through which he evaluated his wire products. I think that he was most proud of his collaboration with John Curl and Carl Thompson on the Blowtorch preamp.
Bob had many acquaintances but few close friends, most somehow connected with audio. He spent many hours on the computer and phone answering questions on wide ranging topics. Bob never married or had children of his own but did become very attached to the children of his last real love, Eileen, but that was many years ago. Bob was not always an easy person to be around. He was highly opinionated and did not always take kindly to alternate views, particularly those in any way critical of his products or his service which could be maddeningly slow.
Most of you will know by this point that Bob had significant medical problems earlier this year and that he was hospitalized at that time. I was at the hospital at one point when the doctor was discussing the problem with Bob. Although the doctor thought that Bob might have had a mild stroke, the real problem was a combination of Bob's weight, his smoking and high blood pressure coupled with severe anxiety attacks which caused Bob's blood pressure to spike. At that time, the doctor wanted to keep Bob in the hospital for further tests but Bob wanted to go home to take care of his cats, smoke his Marlboroughs and drink his Peet's coffee. As it turned out, that was probably not the best decision that Bob could have made. Bob's friends and faimily, particularly John Curl and Brian Walsh, in the last weeks tried to talk Bob into going back to the hospital, particularly in the last few days before he died as his erratic behavior and memory losses became more pronounced, but without any success. By the time Bob died, his weight was close to 500# and he was smoking 6 packs of cigarettes a day.
Why bring any of this up now? I guess because I miss Bob and wish that he were still around and know that this tragedy could have been prevented.
