Robert Leon Waller

On Sunday, we lost a titan. Robert Leon Waller was born on March 1st, 1924 in Milan, Missouri to Venice Elgeva and Luther Waller. He passed away on Sunday, September 25th, 2016 in Overland Park, Kansas at the age of 92.

Robert Leon Waller was in every sense the embodiment of the 20th century American experience. For a baby born on a farm and laid on an oven door to be kept warm, he enjoyed the world like few ever could. His stories were detailed, provocative, and unique on each listen. He traveled the globe on the USS Midway, partaking in the largest armed conflict in history. He met Eleanor Roosevelt in the barracks of a NAVY ship. He walked around Paris one night and ended up accidentally dining with French aristocracy. He built entire homes single-handedly that people still live in today. He shattered his ankle in a construction accident and was told he would never walk again, yet summoned the strength, healed his ankle, and walked for the rest of his life. He worked alongside some of the highest-ranking crime bosses of the 20th century in Leavenworth Federal Prison, where they called him Boss Waller. He married a woman every bit his intellectual equal, Carole Sherard, and together they raised a family and ran a real estate business together. But when Carole passed, and his contemporaries were calling it a life, he found new ways to experience the world a second time. He taught his grandkids how to play poker. He drove across the country alone so he could fly-fish in the rivers of Wyoming. He fell in love again, and moved to Kauai, Hawaii with his new bride, Doris. He was, at various points in his life, a farmer, a soldier, an electrician, a wood craftsman, an architect, a home builder, a photographer, a fisherman, and a real estate agent.

Mostly though, he was a great thinker of his generation. His grandchildren were often appalled by his effort and willingness to move his thoughts and ideas forward at a time when so many people his age want to go backwards. He was downright progressive. He talked about technology and education and racial equality and geopolitical affairs with a tone of hope and aspiration in his voice. He aggressively rejected the phrase, “If it was good enough for me, it’s good enough for them,” especially when speaking about the world issues of his grandchildren’s generation. He wanted his descendants to go to better schools. He wanted his grandchildren to have more opportunities than him. He wanted the world to be a better place for his children, and their children. And because of the life he lived, and the way he lived it, it is a better world. He will always be in our thoughts, but without a doubt, the greatest service to his memory is to look forward, imagine the world as Bob Waller saw it, and live our lives according to that dream.

It was the American Dream, and by God, he lived it….

He was preceded in death by his wife of 46 years, Carole Waller, his brother Noel Waller, and his sister-in-law Julie Viets.

He is survived by his wife of 14 years, Doris Waller, sister Wilma Bundridge, brother and sister-in-law Norris and Fran Waller, son and daughter-in-law Donald Waller and Sue Ann Hertz, daughter and son-in-law Nancy and Christopher Carter, grandson Nathan Carter and his wife Maggie Carter, granddaughter Maggie Lister and her husband Joshua Lister, step-daughters and their spouses, Georgia and Gordon Schmittling, Elaine Bahr and Ray Bucklew, Jennifer and Peter Villatora, Katharine and William Nelson, and step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren Melanie and Jeremy Richert, Lance and Kerry Schmittling, Amanda and Michael Jefferies, Meredith and Loyd Richardson, Lauren Nelson, Caylyn and Caitlyn Villatora, Blake and Brooke Richert, Timothy and Katherine June Richardson, as well as numerous nieces and nephews, friends, and neighbors.

Visitation will be held from 2:00-3:00 p.m. followed by a Celebration of Life at 3:00 p.m., Saturday, October. 15, 2016 at Mt. Moriah, Newcomer & Freeman Funeral Home, 10507 Holmes Road, Kansas City, Missouri. Burial in Mt. Moriah Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Shawnee United Methodist Keystone Sunday School class, 10700 Johnson Drive, Shawnee, Kansas 66203 or The Heartland Honor Flight, Attention: Donations in Memory of Robert Waller, P.O. Box 843930, Kansas City, Missouri, 64184-3930.

Arrangements under the direction of Mt Moriah, Newcomer & Freeman Funeral Home, Kansas City, MO.