Robert Vernon Cramer

Robert Vernon Cramer, 98, passed away peacefully at his home in Napa on March 3, 2020. Bob was born October 19, 1921, in Kalamazoo, MI to Jane and Vernon Cramer.

After Pearl Harbor was bombed he joined the U.S. Merchant Marines. By 1945 Bob “Boomer” was an Able Bodied Seaman and had traveled the world by sea on several merchant Liberty ships.

Bob met his future bride Phyllis Hitchner on a blind date. They married on August 5, 1947, and moved to Napa in 1950. They had two children.

Bob worked for 26 years at Mare Island as a design engineer, where he wrote a pipe stress analysis program. He was highly involved in early computer programming.

In his youth, Bob was an athlete and gymnast. He was an avid reader, poet, outdoorsman, inventor, craftsman and loved to play cribbage. Bob and Phyllis traveled after retiring and spent long summers in Wisconsin.

Bob was a member of the SIRs Roving Roosters RV group, and the Napa Masonic Yount Lodge No. 12 for over 50 years.

is survived by his wife of 72 years, Phyllis Elizabeth Hitchner, daughter Gail Ann (Jerry) Bins—Napa, CA, son Robert Glen Cramer—Bend, OR; granddaughters Julie (John) Smith, Amy (Aaron) Medina, Rebecca Parker, and Katie Cramer; 10 great-grandchildren, Chyan, Shelby, Kyle, Cole, Scott, Zayne, Tanner, Phoebe, Mason, and Adrian; and numerous nieces and nephews. Bob was preceded in death by his daughter-in-law Virginia (Guisness), his siblings and their spouses Neil (Mary) Cramer—Whittier, CA, Hugh (Ruth) Cramer—Dayton, OH, mother and father Jane (Ouimette) and Vernon Reynolds Cramer of Whittier, CA.

Bob supported the Napa Masonic Yount Lodge No. 12 scholarship fund, P. O. Box 2068, Napa, CA, 94558.

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