Person:Robert Surratt (3)

Home Life

Grew up in Greensboro, NC. He enjoyed HAM radios and amateur rocketry as a child.

He lived in White Plains Maryland for over 30 years.

His mother taught him a great love of gardening. During his time in White Plains he nurtured his backyard garden that contained many things, but always tomatoes and figs. He loved his tomatoes. He very energetically danced with his wife to Homegrown Tomatoes by John Denver at his son's wedding and subsequently the song was played at his funeral during part of the slide show.

While in college his hobbies expanded to model airplanes. Model airplanes would come up several more times throughout his life, but in about 2000 he started flying electric model airplanes and got several other people in his life involved including his son and co-worker George Farmer. Many lazy hours were enjoyed building, flying and fixing planes.

He loved his head scratching, back rubs and foot massages, he could almost become obsessive and obnoxious about this area; Tayleah found her way into his heart when she first met him on Father’s Day three years ago, she freely gave backrubs and he freely accepted them: a bond was made

He had his obsessions: he collected Charmin toilet paper, Listerine, cranberry juice, grape juice, red lettuce, cherry juice, fake salt—he didn’t want to run out. He religiously used Dial soap for years, until his loving children pointed out that antibacterial soap is bad for the environment, when he switched to religious use of Irish Spring.

He loved Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, B and Js Carryout in Accokeek, BJs popcorn (he told the exit employee every day he was there that they needed to get the popcorn back, they thought many patrons were requesting popcorn and they returned the machine; it was AWFUL popcorn) and getting raspberry sherbet at Baskin Robbins with Grandma; he loved his “perfect cat” Tigger and all the miscellaneous cats who came in and out of our house; who will hide the chocolate candy from Karen so she doesn’t eat it all at once?

He had a great love of home grown tomatoes with salt on them, they had to be real tomatoes: Better Boy or Better Girl; he loved to plant his garden, and then harvest whatever he could from the weeds later on; he installed an X-10 security system in the garden which detected the deer eating his wonderful plants, it made lights blink and a recording of barking Dobermans, they ceased for a while

He loved going and supporting Karen and her puppet obsessions; he was disturbed as he became sicker that he could not do that any more

He love setting up weird security systems in the house; the first was Rudolf who scared the pants off baby sitter: caused lights to flash, and had Rudolf the security voice screaming “Security Violation” until we arrived home. The security violation was the pole not being inserted in the locked basement door. He also had ordered the parts for a system to monitor his house at the lake: he could tell the tell the temperature of the refrigerator and freezer, determine the dampness of the laundry room (we had had a flood in the basement from the washer), and an internet video cam to check on who or what was walking through

Education and Career

Got a bachelors in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Nuclear Engineering from NC State.

Moved to Maryland and began work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC as a government employee. He worked with a cyclotron in the beginning of his career before moving on to work in Electronic Warfare. After retiring he couldn't stay away from the job he loved so much and returned as a part time contractor -- he probably would have gone back for free if they hadn't let him work as a contractor.

Bob was an engineer and a very early computer geek who absolutely loved his work; even when he became so ill he could no longer go into the Lab, he worked from home; it was never drudgery for him; it brought him great joy and satisfaction

Was a terrific mentor; had patience, kindness and time for new employees and college coop students; he could explain the most technical of concepts in terms that could be understood and comprehended by engineers and laymen alike

Illness and Death

For the last ten years he battled congestive heart failure; prior to that he loved to run and jog; as he became more and more ill he changed his jogging to riding bikes, he did this with gusto; he had an undaunted spirit: it kept dealing him blows and he kept fighting back with a positive outlook and sunny disposition; he built a heart monitor (HeartMon) that knocked the socks off the doctors at Johns Hopkins and awed Dr. Bertele his “Waldorf” cardiologist; one of the Hopkins doctors is pursuing its possible use in emergency health care in India; his monitor was also adapted by individuals in Guatamala and Bolivia; FDA approval in the US was too difficult to navigate and litigation too much of a concern to even give the device away in the US; his device assisted doctors on several occasions in diagnosing some of his own disease and catching it in time to abate it

He spent a lot of time at Johns Hopkins Hospital; always the teacher and mentor, many doctors brought their interns to his room to discuss with him his illness and it’s technical aspects; he could explain to them many of the things he was experiencing in precise technical detail; no matter what his fears or his pain, he always had time for these students

Many doctors and nurses from other visits to Hopkins sought him out to visit him in his room on return visits; as he was dying in intensive care, many of these people came to visit him, all mentioning the kindness, love, bravery and intelligence of this man (they also mentioned his horrible jokes)

He fought Heart Disease for 10 years before passing away due to complications with an LVAD.