Rubino, Sr., Robert A.

Robert (Bob) A. Rubino, 86, passed away on April 22, 2023, at his home at the Ivy at Ellington in Connecticut. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 30, 1936, and lived in California, Arizona and Connecticut. While in Northport, NY, he received a two-year certificate in Engineering from the Community College of New York and started his professional career working for the City of New York in the field of air pollution monitoring and control. In 1957, he married his sweetheart Frances St. John from the Bronx and started a family with the birth of a son Robert, Jr. in 1958 and a daughter Paula in 1961.

Following an opportunity in the country's burgeoning space program, Bob and Frances moved their Family to Canoga Park, California in 1962 where Bob secured a job with Rocketdyne where he worked on the design of a successor of the Saturn V booster in support of a manned mission to Mars. He continued his education at night at the University of Southern California where he received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Three years later Bob brought the family back to the east coast where he and Frances built a home in Willington and lived for the next 30 years. Working for Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, he and other inventors were awarded a patent for a novel Smokeless Main Burner (US3,570,242) in 1971. Again, he pursued higher education through night school, this time at the University of Connecticut, where he received a Master's in Combustion Engineering.

In his free time, Bob coached Little League baseball, served on the Willington Planning and Zoning Commission and, as a Volunteer Fireman, helped design and build an addition to the Willington Hill Fire House #2. After leaving Pratt and Whitney, he and Frances bought two package stores located in Willington and managed the Willington Hill Package Store in West Willington. In 1972, Bob joined the State of Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection where he retired as Assistant Director of Air Pollution Compliance in 1995.

Returning to their love of the southwest, Bob and Frances built a home in Sun City, Oro Valley, Arizona where they spent the best years of their lives. Following the explosive growth curve of Sun City, Tucson, Bob volunteered his time on the Board of Directors. As President of the Board, relying on his expertise in Planning and Development and Environmental Protection, Bob was particularly proud of his contributions to the expansion of the recreation center and wastewater aquifer recharge located at the golf course pond. In his leisure time, Bob was an avid Water Volleyball player. When he wasn't in the pool, Bob pursued his passion for modeling and history, volunteering as a docent at Pima Air and Space Museum and was a founding member of the Sun City Modeling Club where he researched the historic colors of a scale model of the USS Arizona the club was building. Also, at this time he worked on the construction of a 7 1/2” gauge, ride-on train for Gadsden-Pacific located in Tucson.

In the spring of 2022, Bob and Frances sold their home in Sun City of 27 years, downsized and moved to Fairwinds Independent Living in Oro Valley, where they began anew making fast friends. In early 2023, wishing to be closer to family as Frances' health progressively failed, Bob and Frances moved back east to the assisted living residence at the Ivy at Ellington, Connecticut. Bob is predeceased by his wife Frances, parents Anthony & Marion (Urgolites) Rubino, his sister Christine and Frances' parents, Henry J. & Helen F. (McMahon) St. John and Frances' twin sister, Helen McClaren. Surviving Bob are his two children and their spouses: Robert A. Rubino, Jr. (Jan) and Paula L. Rubino (Steve Jablonski), two granddaughters Rachel Trinque (Jesse) of Union and Nicole (Kyle) Sprague of Coventry and three great granddaughters (Eva, Ivy & Clara) all of Connecticut.

Though Bob was only at the Ivy at Ellington for four short months, he made a lasting impression on many of the residents as a student of human history, rocket science, puzzle making and his ever-present Hawaiian shirts. To this day, you can walk past the puzzle room at the Ivy and see incomplete puzzle pieces laid out by his influence of organizing by color, pattern, and ‘gender'.

Burial will be at Valley View Cemetery, Tolland, CT. In lieu of flowers, the Family asks that donations be made to Sun City Modelers Club, PO Box 68353, Oro Valley,AZ 85737, where Bob made many lasting friends with a shared passion for history.

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