Robert F. (Bob) Palmer

Robert F. (Bob) Palmer, 81, passed away peacefully in Largo, Florida on Saturday, June 14th of natural causes.

The man who could build a house from the ground up and an automobile from the wheels up was a 1962 graduate of Lancaster (Ohio) High School. He held two degrees from Ohio University – a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a second bachelors degree in Accounting.

After first graduating from college in 1966, Bob joined the Air Force during the Vietnam era, determined to become a pilot. The Air Force had other ideas. He was assigned to communication units. He was a reporter, photographer, and editor for official military newspapers in both Japan and Vietnam.

He enjoyed his time in Japan, teaching English to Japanese businessmen on the side. His time in Vietnam also was spent as a communications officer. During his time in the service, Bob received the Airman of the Year award, presented in him in Washington, D.C.

Bob, who had worked since his father died when he was 9, spent most of his early and later years working on cars and fixing things. He and his teenage partners in crime were known to sneak Mother Nellie’s car out of the garage at night. Legendary stories of other shenanigans were told about those boys — over and over and over.

After his years in the Air Force were done, Bob was recruited as an editor for the former Bloomington Courier Tribune in Bloomington, Indiana. Not liking the special political assignments from the newspaper owners, he left Bloomington to return to Ohio. There, he kept re-inventing himself. He worked as a drywaller (Mid-Ohio Drywall) while going back to school for the second degree. He was an accountant for Diamond Power before being recruited to join the Columbus-based School Book Fairs. It was with School Book Fairs that he brought his family to Florida in 1990, when the company relocated.

Throughout his life, he was always available to friends who needed help with their vehicles or homes. He ended his working life as the owner of Suncoast Mobile Auto Restoration. He had come full circle, having done body work back in Lancaster as a teenager.

Bob is preceded in death by his younger brother Jay; his nephew, Jeff Goodman; and his parents, Nellie and Frederick Palmer. His family is left to remember the good times: Wife of 50 years, Vicki; sons Jeremy and his girlfriend Grace; Nick and his wife, Brittney; Max and his wife, Ashley, and their family – daughters: Kiara, Audrina, Sophie and son Mordecai.

Also surviving are his sister-in-law, Linda Palmer, along with her son, Mark, and Jay’s daughters, Jamie Ehorn and Justy Boggs and their families; his brother, Jim, and sister-in-law, Karen, and their sons, John and his wife, Amy, and Doug; his sister, Nancy Goodman and Brother-in-Law Gerald (Butch) Goodman and their son, Greg, and daughter-in-law Laura, and their families, and daughter, Julie Darfus, and her family.

The family would like to thank the nurses and staff of Palm Garden of Largo and the nurses at Suncoast hospice for their caring attention. We owe special thanks to Jeri, Bob’s first nurse’s aide/drill sergeant, with whom he enjoyed witty and often loud banter with during his first months in the facility.

A memorial service will be held in Bob’s honor on June 30th, 2025, at Veterans Funeral Care; located at 830 North Belcher Road, Clearwater, Florida 33765. Visitation begins at 5PM, and the service will begin at 6PM. He will be privately laid to rest at Bay Pines National Cemetery.

Bob will be deeply missed but never forgotten.