La Grande, Oregon
Robert E. Hyde, a 1945 graduate of La Grande High School, died April 5 at his home in Sun City, Ariz. He was 80.
A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Mt. Scott Funeral Home in Portland with burial at Willamette National Cemetery to follow at 12:30 p.m.
Bob was born June 16, 1927, in Morton Mills, Iowa, on a 160-acre farm. He was the youngest child of Cecil and Edith Hyde. He was the largest of the four children, weighing in at 12 pounds.
Bob and his siblings made La Grande their home after the death of both their parents in February 1929. They were reared by Roy and Fausta Tyler, cousins of their mother.
As a young child, Bob worked at the Tyler Creamery making popsicles and did chores on the Tyler farm. During his high school years he participated in wrestling, weightlifting and played right tackle on the football team.
Immediately after graduation, Bob, along with 25 of his classmates, enlisted in the Navy. He served his enlistment on the destroyer the Henry W. Tucker. His duties took him to such places as Okinawa, Hawaii and Oshima, Japan. Upon being discharged from the Navy in 1946, he returned to La Grande and enrolled at Eastern Oregon College, taking business courses.
He married Irene Smart in April 1948 and to them two daughters were born, Nan and Valerie. He pursued a partnership in Arctic Refrigeration and moved to Joseph. He later sold his partnership and started his own business in Enterprise.
In 1957, he married Myrna Adams and to them a daughter, Frances, was born. He built his own shop and sold Admiral appliances as well as TVs until they moved to Portland. Myrna preceded Bob in death in October 1967 due to injuries from a car wreck.
Bob continued his refrigeration repair doing work for such companies as Safeway and Fred Meyer stores.
In May 1977 he married Carollee Hunt. They lived in Portland. In the mid-1980s, Bob came up with the idea of a Liquid Pressure Amplifier (LPA), which would deliver enough liquid refrigerant to properly cool products. The refrigeration industry had long been vexed with the problem of not keeping products cold enough on an ongoing basis. Looking around, Bob could not find pumps small enough to deliver his product, so a prototype was produced and Hy-Save Inc. was born. Bob’s Hy-Save pump has been sold all over the world.
In the late 1990s, Bob semi-retired and sold his business to Detroit-Edison and did consulting work for the company.
Bob and Carollee retired to Sun City in 2007.
He was preceded in death by his older siblings, Everett, Vernon, Jean and Paul.
He leaves behind his wife, Carollee; three daughters, Nan Fordice of La Grande, Valerie Hyde and Frances Ofstedahl of Portland; three grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
The family suggests memorial contributions to the American Cancer Society for cancer research.
La Grande Observer, Obituaries for the week ending April 12, 2008