Family and friends will gather November 5 to remember Bob Yeasting. Here’s the remembrance they’re sharing with his community:

Robert Owen (Bob) Yeasting died in his home on October 4, 2022, at the age of 89 years old.

Born in Los Angeles on August 16, 1933, to John O. and Ruth A. Yeasting. Bob moved to West Seattle at age two, where his father opened a national accounting office to manage the Boeing account. As a teenager, Bob was active in the Boy Scouts, where he earned the rank of Eagle Scout, and in the Mountaineers, where he climbed many of the peaks in Washington State from Mount Rainier on down; and hiked and climbed with Northwest legends including the Whittakers, Ira Spring, and Pete Schoening. After graduating West Seattle High School in 1951, Bob attended the University of Washington and embarked on an expedition that made the first ascent of the 14,070-foot Mount Augusta in Alaska in 1952.

Graduating from the University of Washington School of Business in 1955, Bob commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy after completing NROTC, and married the love of his life, Rita Lucille Kramer. Bob and Rita moved to Long Beach, California, and he served as a navigator in the 7th Fleet and later, as a Lieutenant, joined the command staff of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, where their daughter Susan was born in Cannes, France, in 1957.

After completing his naval service, Bob and Rita moved back to Seattle, where he began his business career and they began to grow their family with the birth of Linda in 1960, Bill in 1962, and John in 1970. After working for William P. Harper and Son, Bob joined investment banking firm Foster and Marshall in the late ’60s, where he ultimately led their municipal finance operations as their Sr. Exec VP working alongside Mike Foster. When Foster and Marshall was sold in the 1980s, Bob opened his own firm and continued to distinguish himself as a leader in the municipal finance sector for another 20-plus years. His legacy lives on in the countless infrastructure projects he financed throughout the Northwest, from water supply and sewer systems to stadiums and marinas.

As his family grew, Bob switched his recreational attentions from climbing to skiing and sailing, along with many family hiking adventures and station wagon road trips. In 1965, Bob found a perfect lot in West Seattle to build their dream home, which he designed himself, to raise their family and where he spent his last 57 years. In 1977, after just a couple years of sailing experience, Bob took his family on a 30-day circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in British Columbia on a 36-foot sailboat. After 20 years of family sailing trips, Bob and Rita shifted to a 45-foot trawler, where they made seven round trips to Southeast Alaska via the Inside Passage over the next 15 years. Family and friends had countless opportunities to join them on these and other journeys that directly inspired many to join the boating community of the Northwest.

Always active as a community booster from PTA carnivals and political campaigns of the ’70s, Bob invested ever more time in the West Seattle community as he entered retirement. After teasing Rita about her countless hours spent on the Arts West association, he joined their board and led their fundraising effort to build the Arts West Playhouse, which serves the community today. He also led the West Seattle High School Foundation, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fill funding shortfalls in music, arts, and sports programs, and served on an advisory board for the Genesee Hill school construction. Bob also became a deacon at West Side Presbyterian Church in his 70s.

Bob always enjoyed family time, whether hosting family gatherings or regularly traveling to visit. He enjoyed a good game night and could trash talk with the best of ‘em. As Alzheimer’s took more of his memory in his last few years, his personality and wit remained intact until the end, as he was winning games of Chinese checkers in his last days.

His richest legacy lives on in his surviving family, led by his wife of 67 years, Rita, and his twin sister, Judy Hughes of Orcas Island, four children: Susan ‘Suze’ (Frank Marcinko), Linda (Carrington Bailey), Bill (Julie Quist Yeasting), John (Susan Eastly) and their ten grandchildren, David (Kaila) Kroeker and Samantha Kroeker; Zach (Vera) Bailey and Carl (Jessica) Bailey; Kristin (Alex) Yeasting, Danielle (Sean) Gallagher and Alec Yeasting; Owen Yeasting, Victor Yeasting, and Olivia Owenby, along with seven great-grandchildren and counting! Bob was preceded in death by son-in-law Ken Kroeker and daughter-in-law Kerrie Manolovitz Yeasting.

His family fondly remembers him singing the Bing Crosby chorus: “Where the blue of the night, Meets the gold of the day, Someone waits for me,” as he would come to the dinner table. And his high compliment of a good dinner was “Just like downtown!”

A memorial service and celebration of life is planned for November 5, 2022, at 11 AM at The Hall at Fauntleroy.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bob’s memory to:
The Mountaineers, 7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
mountaineers.org/donate

(WSB publishes West Seattle obituaries and memorial announcements by request, free of charge. Please email the text, and a photo if available, to westseattleblog@gmail.com)