Robert Arthur Mikkelsen

(1925-2020) Robert (Bob) A. Mikkelsen was born in Iowa in 1925, to Arthur and Paige (Reichow) Mikkelsen, graduating from high school in Rockwell City, Iowa. After serving in the Army Air Corps, Bob majored in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State College, where he met Eldora (Dee) Slorby, whom he married in 1948 and they had 69 happy years together. After he graduated in 1949, they moved to Lubbock, Texas, where Bob worked for the local electric utility and their family grew to include four children. In 1957 Bob began to work at Sandia National Laboratories and the family moved to Alb., NM, where two more children were added to the family. In the 1960s, he became a computer programmer and earned a Masters degree in Computer Science from UNM, which lead to the climactic project of his career: developing software for the onboard computers of a constellation of satellites. After retiring in 1984, Bob greatly enjoyed outdoor photography and extensive travel with Dee through much of the US and Canada (in their mini-RV) as well as in Europe, Japan, Kenya, and New Zealand. They also collaborated on Dee’s published quilting articles, with Bob taking the photographs of the intermediate steps and finished quilts. Both devoted many days each year to gardening at their home in Alb. and their new homes when they moved to Placitas, NM, in 1992, and to Surprise, AZ, in 2000.

They moved to La Loma in Litchfield Park, AZ, in 2005, where Bob died recently, three years after Dee. He is survived by his brother Kent and family, his six children (David, Jim, Bill, Mari, Peggy, Marge), their spouses, and nine grandchildren. He was very much loved and will be greatly missed by all his family and friends.