Robert Fred Negele

Longtime Greenwich resident, Robert “Bob” Fred Negele, 96, passed away on September 13, 2019 in Stamford, Connecticut. He was born on August 21, 1923 in Forest Park, Illinois to the late Fred and Clara Negele.

Bob grew up in Brookfield, Illinois, graduating from Riverside Brookfield High School in 1941. From 1944 to 1947 he served as an Ensign in the U.S Navy. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1945, and on November 4th, he married the love of his life, Martha (Marty) Jean Ross of Garden City, Kansas, a graduate of Northwestern University. After getting married, they lived in Norman, Oklahoma where Bob was an instructor in the NROTC program at the University of Oklahoma.

In 1947, Bob and Marty returned to Chicago where Bob began working as an engineer and they started their family. After their first son, James Robert, was born in 1949, they moved to Forest Park, Illinois. Their first daughter, Kathryn Sue, was born in 1951 and their second, Debra Jean, in 1954. In 1955 Bob became General Manager of Star Metal Products in Chicago and their second son, Andrew Ross, was born in 1956, the same year Bob earned his MBA attending Northwestern University at night.

In 1958, Bob became Vice President of Chicago Magnet Wire in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and the Negele Family moved to River Forest, Illinois, where they joined the River Forest Tennis Club and Bob began his lifelong love affair with tennis. In 1967, the Negele family moved to Brunswick, Maine after Robert became President of Philips Elmet, in Lewiston, Maine. In 1974, Bob and Martha moved to Cos Cob, Connecticut when Bob became President of Kulka Electric in Mount Vernon, New York.

In 1982, Bob retired from

Kulka and started his consulting business. With their children grown, Bob and Marty enjoyed their lives together until Marty succumbed to cancer in June of 1997, after 52 years of marriage. In 2000, Bob moved into Edgehill where he became active on its finance committee and was an active member of Milbrook Country Club, playing golf and doubles tennis as founder and member of the Good Ol’ Boys (“GOBs”) tennis team.

Robert is survived by his two sons, James of Hidden Hills, California and Andrew and his wife, Daryl, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, his two daughters, Kathryn of Danbury, Connecticut and Debra and her husband, Mike Yacenda, of Stamford, Connecticut, five grandsons, five granddaughters and four great-granddaughters.

The family will be greeting friends and relatives at a Celebration of Bob Negele’s Life, on Sunday November 10, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Edgehill, 122 Palmers Hill Road, Stamford, Connecticut. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial donations be made In Honor of Robert and Martha Negele by phone, mail or email to:

Stamford Health’s Bennett Cancer Center Stamford Hospital Foundation 1351 Washington Blvd., Suite 202, Stamford, CT 06902 Phone: 203-276-5900 Email: foundation@stamhealth.org