Robert Daniel Haynes

December 14, 1945 - December 9, 2012

Robert was born in Vanderbilt, TX to Elsie (Branscum) Haynes and Louis Haynes. He was the youngest of six brothers. Robert grew up to be a tall, handsome and athletic young man, but his brain already harbored an imperceptible birth defect that would drastically alter the course of his life.

Robert’s future seemed bright when he graduated from Industrial High School in 1964. He entered the US Air Force in 1965. After basic training in San Antonio, he was stationed at Bolling AFB in Washington, DC, where he served in the Air Force Honor Guard. As an outgoing and well-liked recruit, Robert also served as an on-base bartender. In 1967, Robert transferred to Bergstrom AFB in Austin, TX where among other things he worked to install air conditioning at the ranch of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

After his term of service ended in 1968, Robert attended and graduated from the Texas Dept. of Public Safety State Trooper School in Austin, but he resigned soon afterward because he was assigned to a desk job rather than to a patrol position. Robert then got a job as a salesman at the Walt Nichol Volkswagen car dealership in Victoria, TX. He met his future wife Janice Schubert on a blind date in 1969. The two were married in 1971, the same year Robert began studies in industrial arts and secondary education at Victoria Junior College. Robert transferred to Texas A&I University in 1973 and graduated in 1975, the same year his first child, Wade, was born. Shortly after graduation, the family moved back to Victoria, where Robert had taken a job as a teacher at Victoria High School. His daughter Leslie was born four years later in 1979.

Robert hit his stride upon returning to Victoria. After teaching for several years, he started a promising new career as a plant operator at DuPont. In his time off, he began building a new home for his young family on Tranquillo Drive, an idyllic spot about 20 miles south of Victoria.

However, Robert’s fortunes changed drastically in the summer of 1982, when he was stricken by an inexplicable seizure. On examination, doctors discovered that Robert was suffering from rare congenital condition that affects less than 0.01 percent of the population — a neurological arteriovenous malformation (AVM), which is a defect of the circulatory system believed to arise before or soon after birth. Many AVMs are benign — they do not affect the brain’s circulation in any noticeable way. Unfortunately, this was not the case for Robert, whose atypical circulatory structure put him at great risk for more-severe seizures, cerebral aneurysms or hemorrhagic stroke. After carefully considering the alternatives, Robert opted to undergo a surgical procedure to remove the mass of abnormal circulatory tissue from his brain.

During the lengthy surgery, his brain began to swell and his doctors had to place him in an induced coma. But he had also contracted a respiratory infection that prevented the completion of the surgery. He was in a coma for three months. He awoke with extensive brain damage that rendered him as helpless as an infant. Through months of painstaking rehabilitation and hard work, Robert relearned how to walk, hold a fork and button his shirt. Once an eloquent man, he often struggled to speak coherently. He lost most of his ability to read.

Robert came home to his young family a changed man in June of 1983.

In a state of permanent disability, Robert was unable to find employment, but he nonetheless continued to live his life doing the things he loved: woodworking, walking around the neighborhood with the family’s bevy of dogs, mowing the lawn, riding his bicycle, taking his kids swimming at the YMCA, and passionately explaining to perfect strangers why they should not smoke. Though life during this time was beset by enormous difficulties for both Robert and his family, they all persevered with the same strength that drove Robert to keep living his life.

Robert suffered a stroke in 1999. Test results revealed that the AVM, once thought to be fully extracted, had returned. His health declined steadily in the years that followed. In 2009 Robert entered Jeffrey Place Healthcare Center in Waco, TX where he spent the rest of his days known to staff, visitors, and other patients alike as full of the same combination of rugged charm and stubborn persistence that always defined him.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Elsie and Louis, his brother, Clarence, and his brother Martis, who died in the Vietnam War.

Robert leaves behind many survivors: His son, Wade Haynes (fiancée Clare Kennedy) (Minneapolis, MN), and daughter Leslie (Roy) Little (Salinas, CA), and two young grandsons, Charlie and Simon, plus a new granddaughter Daphne June, who just arrived on Robert’s birthday; his brothers Harold (Jenine) Haynes (New Braunfels, TX), Wayne (Jeanelle) Haynes (Inez, TX), and Herbert (Carolyn) Haynes (Waco, TX); and numerous nieces and nephews.

After Robert’s daughter, Leslie, and his new granddaughter are able to travel, a memorial service for him will be held in Victoria, TX. His remains will be buried at the foot of his mother’s grave in Memory Gardens Cemetery in Edna, TX.

Many in Robert’s family as well as his friends, in numerous little and big ways, helped care for him over the years. The family extends heart-felt thanks to the caring personnel of Jeffrey Place Healthcare Center and Providence Hospice in Waco who performed the sometimes difficult tasks of taking care of Robert during the last three years of his life while also demonstrating their love for him.

The family invites you to leave a message or memory in the guestbook at RosewoodFuneralChapel.com (Victoria) or Connally-Compton.com (Waco).