Robert Edward (Bob) Lee, manager of the Tacoma office of the General Electric Company and prominent in business, civic, and sports circles, died late Wednesday night [October 23, 1940] at his home, 825 North Yakima Avenue, of a heart attack.
He appeared to be in good health during the afternoon and ate a hearty dinner Wednesday night. Following dinner, he sat down in his living room and fell into a sleep from which he never awakened. He had been at his office as usual Wednesday.
About three years ago he suffered a slight stroke, from which he seemed to have almost completely recovered. Only a few weeks ago he took a 500 mile trip into the Cariboo District for hunting with Ralph Scott, President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and Les Jensen, an engineer of the Star Iron & Steel Company.
Lee was said to be the only person holding a position of his importance in the General Electric organization who was not a college graduate.
From boyhood he had a genius in mechanical and electrical matters. When he finished high school in his native town of Orting, he went to work for the Puget Sound Power & Light Company. He was only a youth when he was made a foreman.
Boys who grew up with him in Orting 40 years ago say they rarely ever saw him unless he had parts of an electric motor or some other electrical equipment in his possession. Popular with the youngsters of the town, he often had a large crowd of children around him as he explained, to a skeptical generation, the workings of an electric motor.
After several years with the Puget Sound Power & Light Company, Lee took a temporary position as Superintendent of the Spiketon coal mine.
In his work for the Puget Sound Power & Light Company, he became acquainted with Northwest representatives of the General Electric Company. Despite his lack of technical training, required of practically every salesman of industrial equipment. Lee was given a job with the company. He was the first representative of the General Electric Company in Tacoma, which opened an office here in 1914.
Rivals called him one of the outstanding salesmen of electrical equipment. He acquired a wide knowledge of electricity and electrical equipment during his long service with the General Electric Company, and often had an edge on competition because of his knack of explaining in the layman’s instead of the engineer’s language.
He is survived by his wife, Mildred F. [Fix] of the home; two [half] brothers, James R. O’Farrell, an executive of the Caterpillar Tractor Company in Peoria, Ill., and former Pierce County Commissioner, and Thomas O’Farrell of Tacoma, who only last week was retired after long service with the Northern Pacific Railway.
He was a member of the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, the Tacoma Club, the University-Union Club and the Tacoma Lodge of Elks. He also was a member of several hunting clubs and sportsmen’s organizations. He was considered one of the best bird shots in the Northwest.
Funeral arrangements will be made by Mellinger’s.
Contributed by: Shelli Steedman