Robert John Carlson

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Robert John Carlson (aged 93) was born on October 15th, 1931, in Louisville Ohio, and died peacefully on January 11th, 2025 at his son’s home in Monument Colorado surrounded by love and cherished memories. Bob lived a long and fulfilling life marked by kindness, wisdom, and loving dedication to his wife Betty (Brunner), his son Edward, and the rest of those he held dear. His parents were Sidney Carlson and Iva Anderson. Bob is survived by Ed, who was the pride and joy of his life, as well as his two grandsons, Craig and Scott Carlson who he dearly loved. He is preceded in death by his beloved Betty, who passed away on March 2nd 2023 and with whom he shared 71 years of love and partnership. Together, they built a home filled with laughter, love, and resilience. His older sister, Miriam, passed away in 2012. 

Bob went to grade school and high school in Louisville, where he was valedictorian of his class, had the highest SAT score in the nation at that time, and he was voted most likely to succeed. With his background allowing him to study the profession of his choosing he choose geology, one that would allow him to work outdoors. Under scholarship, he received his bachelor’s degree from Kent State, his master’s from Miami University, and worked on his PhD at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he and Betty made many good friends. After Northwestern, Bob went to work for the Shell Oil Company in Denver CO, and then transferring to Santa Fe NM (where Ed was born), Del Rio TX, and Casper WY. In 1965 Shell moved the family back to Denver where Bob eventually transitioned from Shell to the Marshall Young Oil Company. He would eventually start his own business with one of his old Shell friends, Norm Jefferies. After retiring from the oil business in the early ‘80s, Bob started his second career of supporting Betty’s professional art career, which involved producing, showing and selling hundreds of her paintings and prints over the whole of the western United States.

Bob leaves behind friends and other family members all of whom were fortunate to benefit from his wisdom, caring, sage advice, and everlasting dry sense of humor. His legacy of compassion, strength, and quiet grace will live on in the hearts of all who knew and loved him. Bob loved ‘36 Plymouths; old Ford tractors; following the Denver Broncos (both the good and the bad years); living in Santa Fe; 5 o’clock martinis with his best friend, Chuck Kerven; Betty’s awesome home style cooking; Santa Fe’s Shed restaurant’s blue corn cheese enchiladas; reading about history, especially old British castles and his great-great… grandpa King Edward I; his high school track team nickname of “Rapid Robert”; and watching the price of Texas sweet crude. Bob and Betty always enjoyed traveling, whether roaming the west in 1954 (sleeping in the back of their small Plymouth station wagon) or visiting the Caribbean, Western Europe and Hawaii.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Pikes Peak Hospice or to a charity of your choice. 

https://pikespeakhospice.org/donate-today/