Robert Ward Hicks

Husband, dad, grandpa, teacher, community volunteer and friend. Bob Hicks had many roles and was beloved in all of them. He died peacefully at age 97 in his home in Tustin where he raised his children and lived for 66 years, with his loving wife by his side.

Bob was born and spent almost his entire life in California. Nicknamed Bobbo as a boy, he was an enterprising child, from having a paper route to packing fruit in the old Orange packing houses. His first job as an adult was working in a grocery store, becoming an assistant manager, and until the end of his life he enjoyed walking through a well-stocked produce department.

After two years at community college, he was drafted into the Army and sent to Japan where he was assigned to work in the Finance Department, handling Army payroll. He met his best friend there and they remained friends for their entire lives. When his military service ended in 1953 he began attending Woodbury College in Los Angeles, and while there met the love of his life, his wife, Carolyn, who was attending a nearby art college. A year later they were married. Bob graduated from college and returned to Orange, and soon thereafter became an accountant for a home-building company. In 1959 they bought a home in Tustin, at that time filled with orange groves. There, they raised their two children, Bruce and Lorrie.

He made a major change in his life in his early 40s, trading accounting for teaching when he became a high school teacher. His first day of teaching was the same day his son started high school. But they were at rival Tustin schools: Bob at Foothill High School and Bruce at Tustin High School, where Bob’s daughter, Lorrie, also later attended. This meant constant disagreements (and the occasional wager), about which school had the superior Football team. Sadly for Bob’s children, Foothill won every single football game.

Bob continued his education and earned his Master’s and Doctorate degrees, but more importantly was very dedicated to his job and influenced many students. He’d run into them years later and hear what a positive effect he had in their lives.

When he retired from teaching he took up golfing, and convinced himself having the highest score made you the winner. This was actually true in his case, because he was usually the one having the most fun. But he made up for his lack of golfing skills by winning most of the weekly rummy tile contests with his family. Even great-grandchildren were granted no mercy and repeatedly heard great-grandpa put down his last tile and say, “I’m out.”

Bob and Carolyn loved to travel, especially when they retired. They went to all 50 states, and visited more than a dozen countries in Europe via car, bus, train and boat. They even traveled to Sweden to personally pick up a new Volvo and tour Scandinavia in it.

Bob was truly a positive person. He had a great sense of humor, always making his family and co-workers laugh. He also believed in not just talking about helping others and being kind, but actually doing it. He dedicated countless hours over decades in many activities: delivering Meals On Wheels

and doing taxes for seniors at the Tustin and Orange Senior Centers. A member of the Tustin Presbyterian Church since 1974, Bob was active as an usher, deacon and trustee.

Bob leaves behind a loving family, and equally important, a family who knows how much he loved them: His wife, Carolyn, of 71 years, his children Bruce (Joy) and Lorrie Woolard, his grandchildren, Ryan and Hailey Hicks, and Brian, Alicia, Nick (Liz) and Chris Woolard, and great-grandchildren, Sophia and Ella Woolard. They celebrate his life,