Robert Colin Wilkes

After completing an Engineering degree, Robert joined the Navy in 1966. Fascinated by airplanes, he entered pilot training, winning his navy wings in 1968. He became an A-6 pilot stationed at Whidbey Island Air Station where he learned to fly the all-weather low-level attack mission.

Robert served in Vietnam aboard the USS Constellation and flew 100 combat missions, receiving 18 medals for heroism. He made 365 carrier landings, a third of them at night. The mine-laying training he practiced in Admiralty Bay was put to use when Roberts squadron laid mines in Haiphong Harbor, closing off resupply to the North Vietnamese and helping to close the war 6 months later.

Robert left the Navy after the war and took an engineering position at Corning in NY. Robert soon returned to the Northwest as a Boeing engineer. It was there that his love of writing was noticed and he transitioned into marketing. He wrote the sales literature for the 757 and 767. He was also the speechwriter for the president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and other executives.

Robert left Boeing to fly in the airlines. He flew the De Havilland Dash-8 for Horizon Air for a year but missed the creative work he had done in marketing. He eventually became the owner and president of Wilkes Creative, a marketing communications and design consulting firm.

Robert worked hard to maintain American support for Israel. He was on the regional board of AIPAC, the board of the Seattle chapter of StandWithUs, and a leader of the Seattle-Ba'er Sheva Sister City Association. Robert was also on the board of DECA teaching marketing and business to high school students and was a long-time volunteer with Junior Achievement, teaching economics in classrooms K through 12.

Robert kept writing all through life. He has published nearly 100 magazine and newspaper articles and has mostly been writing on a website dedicated to civil discourse between right and left called DividedWeFall.com. He published more than 30 debates and editorials that had more than a quarter of a million views.

Robert was happily married to Dr. Nancy Tipton, his wife of 16 years. They traveled, and both loved their dogs. They read and watched courses together during dinners. Robert is the proud father of Sarah, David, and Keith, and grandchildren Samantha, Katie, Benjamin, Allison, Maddoxander, Sydney, Hunter and Riley.

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