Robert Koberstein

Robert Koberstein, age 72, of Aurora, died Monday, April 16, 2001, at Memorial Hospital.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 A.M., Thursday at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Aurora. Fr. John Keefe will officiate. Interment will be in the Aurora Cemetery. Visitation will be from 3 to 8 P.M., Wednesday at Higby Mortuary. Condolences may be e-mailed to the family through the mortuary website at higbymortuary.com.

OBITUARY: ROBERT KOBERSTEIN

Robert Paul Koberstein, the son of Otto August and Pearl Anna (Joyce) Koberstein, was born in a private home in Lewellen, Nebraska on March 13, 1929 during a blizzard and died in Aurora, Nebraska on April 16, 2001, at the age of 72 years.

Bob was the youngest of three children born. He attended country school with his sister Mary Alice through the second grade. After completing grammar school at Scarritt School in Kansas City, Missouri he graduated from Manual High School.

His first part-time employment after high school was in the manufacture of women's hats in what was literally a "sweat shop" - steam was used to shape the felt into hats. It was never one of his favorite jobs!

In 1948, at the age of 19, Bob joined the Kansas City Fire Department. The starting age was supposed to be twenty-one.

Bob joined the Army in 1951. He completed training at Counter Intelligence Corps in Ft. Halibird, Maryland. He was stationed in Japan during the Korean War and was discharged in 1953 at San Francisco.

In the summer of 1952, he raised turkeys with his Dad on the South Tableland near Lewellen, Nebraska.

Bob married Delores Bartholomew on December 31, 1954, at Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1954, he attended Finlay Engineering College in Kansas City, graduating 1956 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree.

He was involved with the space program at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida when the Russians successfully launched their Sputnik satellite. He was also at Patrick Air Force Base when the first U.S. satellite, the Vanguard, blew up on the pad.

He returned to school in 1958 and after receiving his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1960, he went to work as a Field Manager for the Bendix Corporation on the East Coast. Bendix was a prime contractor in the Atomic Energy Commission's nuclear weapons program. He transferred to the Bendix Launch Division as a Senior Engineer and Quality Control Manager. Bob was there from the start of the Apollo Moon Program in 1965 until its successful completion in 1973.

Eager to get back to Nebraska, he acquired an Interstate Battery franchise serving central Nebraska from his headquarters in Aurora, Nebraska. Bob was pleased to have his daughter, Paula, and her husband, LaMoyne Danhauer, working with him.

Robert was preceded in death by his parents and brother, James.

Robert is survived by his wife Delores of Aurora; daughter, Paula Danhauer and her husband LaMoyne of Aurora; grandson, Zachary Danhauer of Lincoln; and a sister, Mary (Mrs. Harold) Gibson of Aurora.