Robert E. Crosby

Waltham – Mr. Robert E. 'Bob' Crosby, Jr., of Waltham, died Saturday, March 2, 2013 at Maristhill Nursing Home in Waltham. He was 88.

Bob was born in East Boston on June 3, 1924, a son of the late Robert E., Sr. and Marie (Danihy) Crosby. He was raised in East Boston and after graduating from Mission High School he joined the United States Army. Bob spent most of World War II in Europe as a part of an engineering regiment that began re-building the infrastructure that had been destroyed beginning at the port of Le Havre in France in the summer of 1944 to central Germany a year later.

After the war, he like so many returning servicemen, went to college on the newly enacted GI Bill and graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in 1950 with a degree in electrical engineering. He earned a master's degree in business management from the same university in 1969. In 1989 he retired from the Raytheon Company after having worked for more than twenty years for their missile systems division.

In September, 1951 Bob married his sweetheart, also an East Boston native, Regina A. 'Jean' Williams at Saint Mary Star of the Sea Church in East Boston. The couple moved to Waltham three years later and have been residents since. They quickly became involved in the newly formed Saint Jude Parish where Bob was as usher at Sunday masses for more than fifty years and where he had been a longtime member and past president of the Parish Council and the parish Holy Name Society.

In addition to his wife of more than sixty-one years, Jean, he leaves his children, Judith M. Crosby of Waltham and John R. Crosby and his wife, Karen, of Rochester, New Hampshire; his grandchildren, Ashley Crosby and Heather Arsenault; his great-granddaughter, Alexia Arsenault; his brothers and sisters, Joseph Crosby of Newton, Mary Jackson of Norwood, Sr. Margaret Crosby, SND of Manchester, New Hampshire and Edward Crosby of The Woodlands, Texas and many nieces and nephews.

He was also the grandfather of the late Alex Scott.

Family and friends will honor and remember Bob's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Wednesday, March 6th, from 4 to 7 p.m. and again at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning before leaving in procession to Saint Jude Church, 147 Main Street, Waltham where his Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham.

Memorial donations may be made to Maristhill Nursing Home, 66 Newton Street, Waltham, MA 02453.