Robert "Bob" Buntin

In loving memory of Robert Andrew Buntin of Grapevine, Texas who passed away on 10th January 2018 in Grapevine, Texas. Robert was born in Dundee on 5th May 1923 to parents Andrew, a hairdresser, and Mary, a homemaker. The family was actually living in Alloa at the time but his mother wanted him to be born in their home city of Dundee. Robert attended Dollar Academy, a noted private school, as a gifted student on a scholarship. Upon leaving school, Robert joined the Alloa Coal Company accounts department and began training as a Cost Accountant.

Robert was an idealistic young man and as The Second World War broke out he had to wait a few years before being eligible to volunteer to serve his country. He joined The Royal Air Force and due to his eyesight he became a Signals Specialist in Yemen and other parts of North Africa and Egypt. After being discharged he was encouraged to return to work for The Alloa Coal Company to ensure he was on the payroll prior to its Nationalization. He continued with his part-time accounting studies while working on the Cost Accounting of the rapidly expanding Central Scotland coal fields. In 1953, he married Christina Fyfe in St Mungo’s Parish Church, Alloa and in 1956, they had a son, Jamie.

Robert was ambitious and in 1957 he obtained a position in the Accounting Department in the Caltex oil refinery in Bahrain in The Middle East, this would be the start of a 40 year international career with the company.

He spent many years in Bahrain where he met Esme and they married in the Caltex Chapel in Awali in 1964 and he had many interesting stories of their time there, including the time when he bought a Jaguar Mark 10 car in London and they drove it back to Bahrain. This was at times a hazardous journey of 4,000 miles through many territories that would be impossible to cross these days. This was the ultimate road trip to make for a man who since his youth had been interested in motorcycles and motorcycle racing. He owned one of the first Vincent Blackshadow motorcycles in Clackmannan County. This was an iconic British machine that had a recorded top speed of 125 mph. This interest evolved into cars and he was noted for having a number of sports and luxury cars over the years culminating in his beloved Cadillacs.

Robert got more involved in auditing all the refinery activities and from this he moved to the International Auditing team where he eventually headed up the department. This involved auditing various Caltex facilities in East Africa, the Middle and Far East and Asia and obviously a large amount of international travel for both him and Esme who accompanied him on these trips. He had a brief period of retirement in the UK but he couldn’t settle and jumped at the chance to rejoin Caltex when they set up the Dallas office in the early 1980s and through this gained US Residency and then Citizenship.

On eventual retirement at the age of 77, Robert was able spend more time on his interest in politics and current affairs. He was an avid reader of various newspapers and he loved the British Daily Telegraph and was able to read it on-line. However, he used to really enjoy the paper version when it was brought to him by visitors from the UK. He also liked watching TV dramas, news programmes and his portable radio was never far from his hand. Like Esme, he enjoyed watching the birds in their garden.

Until his fall a few years ago, he regularly visited the Recreation Center and enjoyed his 3 mile walk practically every day it was open. Together with Esme he made many friends in Grapevine and enjoyed socializing with them. Esme and Robert particularly enjoyed hosting their annual New Years Day dinner complete with traditional Scottish steak pie with mashed rutabaga and potatoes. This was a link to his home country of Scotland of which he was very proud.

He will be very sadly missed by all those who knew him.

Robert is survived by his son Jamie of London, England, his niece Esme Phylis Wallace of East Boldon, England and his cousin Betty’s husband, Aird and their sons Alistair and Colin from Glasgow, Scotland.

Robert was preceded in death by his beloved wife Esme and his dearest cousin Betty.

Charitable donations in lieu of flowers to The Royal British Legion.