Bob Woodall

James Robert “Bob” Woodall

Born in December 1957, just eleven months after his “Irish twin” brother Bill, son of Billy Clyde and Carol Woodall. Reflecting his fathers Texas roots, and his mothers New England roots, Bob was a mix of country, hillbilly and northern sensibility.

He met his wife Gretchen in 1981, through mutual friends on a blind date and they married soon after. Their son Andrew was born in 1988. Gretchen and Bob were married for 42 years. Theirs was a marriage filled with adventure, laughter and love.

Bob was a great storyteller. One of the ways people got to know Bob was through his stories. They included growing up in El Monte, trips to Texas to visit his grandparents, hillbilly and country music concerts at El Monte Legion Stadium, working at Alpha Beta and the list goes on.

Bob loved his hometowns of El Monte and later South El Monte. But South El Monte was close to his heart. He would correct people if they said El Monte. He graduated from Mountain View High School and played on the tennis team.

Bob graduated from Cal Poly Pomona and began his career in payroll accounting. At KPMG and Grant Thorton he traveled extensively throughout the US and became a recognized expert in the payroll tax accounting field.

Bob had a passion for baseball and visited 15 major league ballparks during his travels, happiest when he could see his beloved San Francisco Giants play. In recent years he made a point of going to as many of his nephew Conner’s little league games as he could.

Bob had an entrepreneurial spirit that drove him to develop a wireless TV cable system through his company Wireless Ideas and a bicycle rack under the name Woody’s Racks. A true “car guy,” starting from just a rusted out frame, Bob built a 1951 Willy’s Jeepster that won awards at local car shows. He probably should have been an engineer where his brain, creativity and curiosity would have flourished.

Bob was a passionate cyclist, often riding 50 or more miles on weekends. He participated in cycling tours all over California and raised money for MS and other charities over 20 years. He loved baking, especially chocolate chip cookies, though pies were also in his wheel house. He was not fond of green food and hated peas with a passion.

Bob was diagnosed with cancer and was told he had two years to live. That was eight years ago. Bob was a fighter. He went through multiple rounds of often unpleasant treatments, triumphed through remissions, suffered recurrences and renewed battles, never giving up. His wife Gretchen and son Andrew by his side through it all.

In remembering Bob, we all think of his quick wit and dry sense of humor. We would like to think of him riding a bike through a field of chocolate chip cookies.

We will all miss him greatly.