Bob Fell

Bob Fell, John Moldovan and I were the key employees selected to bring the integrated logistics support management expertise for the Cadillac Gage products into the Louisiana company. I considered Bob and John as my friends, having worked with them both since 1981. They had been with Cadillac Gage much longer than I had, but both were too young to retire.


At the time, I was taking classes at Wayne State University, but hadn’t quite yet earned my degree. My daughters were quite young, and I was fearful of giving up a good salary and benefits. Textron offered an excellent relocation package, so I accepted the offer to stay with the company. I was still young, and figured there would be more opportunities in a large company.

When we started work in Louisiana, things begin to look gloomy. The organization structure was not the same as ours in Michigan, so I was placed in one department and Bob was put in another. Neither of us retained our hierarchal status, and we had little to support our ongoing projects. John decided early on that it was not for him, so he ended up back in Michigan working for General Dynamics. He’s still there and going strong.

There were many mistakes made in the whole process, but I won’t expand upon them here nor dwell on the past. No sense in exposing the skeletons at this point. My friend Bob ended up with bone cancer, and passed away after a few years down in Louisiana. It was sad to watch him deteriorate, but it was good to know that he had come to accept Jesus during his struggles. If you knew Bob, you would accept that as another one of God’s little miracles. Bob used to call Carol and I “Mr. and Mrs. Perfect.” He knew that I had strong morals, and that I tried hard to live a Christian life. When I was released from Kuwait, and was quoted as saying “I prayed for peace,” Bob started calling me Billy Graham. He was a kidder. I always felt that Bob would have made a great replacement for Johnny Carson. He had a quick wit, and somehow he could get away with off-the-cuff remarks and innuendos without getting into trouble. Well, maybe once he didn’t get away with his comments, but we’ll let Bob rest in peace.

Bob had a couple of Frank n’ Ernest cartoons framed on his wall. One of them had a caption that read “Bob’s prejudices are all in line with company policy.” The first time that I met Bob was during my job interview for a tech writer position. He asked if I had a sense of humor? He asked what nationality I was, and I told him that I was half-Mexican. Then he asked me, “Do you know why blacks don’t marry Mexicans?” I told him no. He said “because they’re afraid their kids will grow up too lazy to steal.” That was Bob. I got the job. I guess I must have laughed at his joke. We shared many more jokes and good times through the years.